
Class _JB E 

Book Jt'4JJL. 

Copyright N? 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 




By 

Isaac K. Funk, D.D., LL.D. 

Editor-in-Chief of the "Standard Dictionary'"' ; Author of " The 

Next Step in Evolution" " The Widow's Mite and 

Other Psychic Phenomena''' Etc. 



" Always we have to remember that our knowledge is bounded by our 
senses, and that we may be in a world quite other than that which sense 
reveals." — Prof. Goldwin Smith, Toronto, Can. Letter in New 
York Sun, Feb. 4, 1906. 

"It is evident that our feeble intelligence, endowed with five senses 
of limited range, does not penetrate into all the forces of Nature. . . 
The truths — those surprizing, amazing, unforeseen truths — which our de- 
scendants will discover, are even now all around about us, staring us in 
the eyes, so to speak, and yet we see them not. . . . These truths, 
when they are better understood, will profoundly modify the puny notions 
we at present entertain concerning man and the universe." — Charles 
Richet, Professor to the Faculty of Medicine, Paris, in Light, Lon- 
don, Feb. 4, 1906. 



Funk & Wagnalls Company 

New York and London 

MDCCCCVII 



Copyright, 1907, by 

FUNK &> WAGNALLS COMPANY 
[Printed in the United States of A mericd] 
Published, February, 1907 



LIBRARY of CONGRESS ' 
Two Cooies Received 

FEB 26 190f 

»— Copyrjjrht Entry 
CUSS A XXc, H6, 
COPY B. * 




1 ' I preferred to build my conviction upon a basis 
which would satisfy my intelligence and my reason, 
rather than impose a priori conditions which the 
experiment ought to satisfy in order to convince me. 
I am ignorant of most of these conditions, and I think 
that every one else is also. Consequently I consider 
it imprudent to establish beforehand the conditions 
under which the experiments are to be made, in order 
to merit being recorded. . . . My manner of proceeding 
has been productive of many happy results ; for the 
curious phenomena which I have been able to observe 
are capricious; they shun those who would force 
them, and offer themselves to those who wait for them 
patiently. This behavior, this spontaneity, is not 
the least astonishing feature in this line of observa- 
tion. ... I am certain that we are in the presence of an 
unknown force. . . . Some future Newton will discover a 
more complete formula than ours."— J". Maxwell, Doc- 
tor of Medicine and Deputy-General at the Court of Ap- 
peals, Bordeaux, France, in " Metapsychical Phenom- 
ena," pp. 18, 19. Preface by Prof. Charles Kichet, 
and Introduction by Sir Oliver Lodge. 



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in 2011 with funding from 
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CONTENTS 



I. — Somewhat Personal. 1 

Dr. Richard Hodgson's estimate of " Widow's Mite 
and Other Psychic Phenomena" (1) — Unusual 
proofs required (2) — Sympathetic attitude on the 
part of the investigator important (3) — Psychic ex- 
periences do not come to all (6) — Professor Lombro- 
so's statement (6) — A Jesuit Father's belief in 
spirit communication (7) — The Roman Catholic 
Church forbids spirit communication (7) — Dr. 
Maxwell's opinion of mediums (7) — "Picking Na- 
ture's locks" (9)— Truth humbly born (10)— 
Criticism of some critics (12) — Materialistic phase 
of Spiritualism (12). 

II. — Some Reasons Why the Study of Psychic 
Problems by Scientists Should be Encour- 
aged. 15 

Investigation should be systematic (16) — Professor 
Hyslop's American Institute for Psychic Investiga- 
tion (16) — Identity hypothesis the chief est prob- 
lem (21) — Mistakes of science (21) — Some able men 
superstitiously afraid of ghosts (23) — The inconsist- 
ency of scientists (26) — Scientists increasingly in- 
terested in psychic matters (27) — The hostility of the 
Church to the "Spirit" hypothesis (30) — Danger of 
the hypnotic trance (30) — Ancient psychic frauds 
(30) — Daniel, the prophet, a clever investigator (31) 
— Appeal to Churchmen to reason more calmly on 
psychic phenomena (32) — Psychic research has 
already told against materialism (33) — Fraud-find- 
ing instead of truth-finding (34) — The " spirit-world" 
seems also to have a psychic problem (36) — Power 
of suggestion (37) — Spiritualism not as yet scientif- 
ically demonstrated (40) — Chips and "left-overs" 
(41). 



vi CONTENTS 

III. — Communications Purporting to Comx i toom Dr. 
Rich \ki> Hodgson. 47 

A strong statement of Sir Oliver Lodge (47) — Dr. 
Hyslop's qualifications as an investigator (48) — Mrs. 
Piper's trance proven to be genuine (49) — Dr. Hodg- 
son pronounced the keenest of psychic detectives 
(50)— The plan of "Dr. Hodgson's ghost" to 
identify himself (51) — Trivial communications often 
the more helpful as proofs (53) — Mrs. Piper's com- 
munications from Dr. Hodgson stenographically re- 
ported (56, 58) — Dr. Hodgson urges the importance 
of prayer (60) — A newspaper fake and its curious 
correction (65) — Rev. Mr. Wiggin's communication 
from "Dr. Hodgson's Spirit" (73) — Attempts to 
explain an unfortunate mistake (76) — Walter 
Hubbell, the actor, narrates an interesting ex- 
perience (81) — The actor, John McCullough's 
"ghost" (81). 



IV. — The Phenomena Known as Independent Voices. 85 

1. Mrs. Emily S. French of Rochester (86) — Testi- 
mony in her behalf (87-93) — Conditions upon which 
I consented to investigate Mrs. French's "Voices" 
(94) — Diagram of Seance-room (100) — An explana- 
tion of why darkness may be necessary at seances — 
Marconi's experience in wireless telegraphy (101, 
102) — The inevitable Indian control, this time 
'tis Red Jacket (103) — A great number of experi- 
ments made and a variety of possible hypotheses 
tested (105-152)— The deafness of Mrs. French an 
important factor (102, 113) — Control Red Jacket's 
speech on life in the "Spirit- world" (104) — The 
difficulty of locating sounds in darkness (107) — Mrs. 
French's physical weakness (109, 126)- — Testings for 
possible explanations, as ventriloquism (115) — 
the megaphone (117) — collective hallucination (121) 
— Efforts to secure simultaneous talking by the 
medium and "spirits" (121) — Moral quality of 
"spirit talks" (127) — Mrs. French makes a very 
favorable impression (128) — Red Jacket says 
Disbelief in "evil spirits" a dangerous mistake 
(129) — Possible explanatory hypotheses of inde- 
pendent voices (132) — The extemporizing of vocal 
organs (137) — "Spirits" tell about their occupation 



CONTENTS vii 

in the " spirit- world " (142) — Water-test urged and 
declined temporarily (145, 146) — Water-test after- 
ward succeeds (150) — " Fly in the ointment" (152) 
— Affidavit of A. W. Moore, Secretary of the Roches- 
ter Art Club (150). 



2. Other Independent Voice Phenomena (153)— 
Independent voices through a trumpet (153) — 
Sounds may be heard from the medium's throat 
when lips are tightly closed (153) — An Ex-Gov- 
ernor's experience with trumpet medium (155) — 
The West-Virginia case (158) — Professor Hyslop's 
testimony concerning this experiment (158) — A 
careful series of experiments by David Abbott (158). 



V. — Typical Cases of Several Classes of Psychic 

Phenomena. 166 

Ruskin's acceptance of the spirit hypothesis (166) — 
Thought transference- — Bishop of London's ex- 
perience (167) — A wonderfully successful series 
of tests in telepathy (168) — The medium, Margaret 
Gaule, gives curiously correct information (170) — 
Letters in sitter's pocket answered by Mrs. Pepper 
(171)— "Spirit wires get crossed" (172)— Clairvoy- 
ancy (172) — A case that telepathy can scarcely ex- 
plain (173) — A case in which Mrs. Pepper gives 
remarkably correct information (173) — Dr. Veeder 
seems to prove the mechanical power in thought 
(177) — Curious apparitions of the living indicating 
the power of the human ego to manifest itself ob- 
jectively at a distance (179-188) — A physician who, 
when seemingly dead, was yet altogether conscious 
(182) — Hudson's theory of the subjective mind 
tested (186) — Cases indicating intelligences outside 
of human bodies (187) — A. A. Hill, a New York edi- 
tor, puzzled by a ghostly reporter (187-190) — Tests 
by Professor Hyslop that seem to prove the spirit 
hypothesis (190) — A remarkable case where a son 
finds his father through spirit communication (193) 
— A safe opened by a medium (194) — Ella Wheeler 
Wilcox tells of an experience which convinced her 
of the truth of the spirit hypothesis (196). 



viii CONTENTS 

VI. — Conclusion — Some Things that Seem Proven 

and Some Things that Seem not Proven. 199 

Much fraud and much malobservation, yet then- 
are phenomena that point clearly to foreign intel- 
ligent forces (199) — Why I do not accept] Spiri- 
tualism as a proven fact (200) — Definition of a 
Spiritualist (201) — Why the identity hypothesis is 
difficult to accept (202) — Confusion worse con- 
founded (203) — Professor Hyslop has what he deems 
satisfactory proof of identity (206) — What strains 
courage (208)— Chips and "left-overs" (209-221) 
— Momentary partings of the veil (222). 

Appendices. 223 

A. — Mrs. Emily S. French's Deafness. 225 

B. — Col. J. S. Dryden's Bewildering Experience. 229 

C. — Professor Hyslop seems to Identify a Spirit. 232 

D. — Professor Lombroso's Conversion to Spiri- 
tualism. 234 

E. — Camille Flammarion's Denial. 238 



THE PSYCHIC RIDDLE 



SOMEWHAT PERSONAL 

"I believe that you have done an enormous amount 
of valuable work, especially in the open stand that you have 
taken for investigation and for arousing the interest of a 
wider public." — Dr. Richard Hodgson. 1 

The psychic facts which I venture to give in this 
volume are typical of a large number that have 
come, from time to time, into my experience. 

Certain psychologists have long regarded ex- 
periences of this class — when they have not denied 
them outright — as undigested facts. Undigested, 
yes; but are they indigestible? Some men, leaping 
over wide chasms — many of these wholly unexplored, 
and nearly all of the remainder only very partially 
explored — regard such facts as altogether certain 
proof that Spiritualism is true. I do not so regard 
them, but do regard them as well worthy of careful 
record and of exhaustive investigation by trained 

i In letter, April 1, 1905, referring to " The Widow's Mite 
and other Psychic Phenomena." 

1 



2 UNUSUAL PROOFS REQUIRED 

scientists. Other men, without proof, deny such 
facts in toto, forgetful of the wise admonition of Sir 
Oliver Lodge, that what the humblest of men affirm 
from their own experience is always worth listening 
to, but the denials of the cleverest of men when made 
in their ignorance are never worth a moment's at- 
tention. 

As this class of phenomena lies outside of common 
experience it is altogether reasonable to require 
that they be strongly verified — far more strongly 
than we require of those experiences that are common 
to mankind. 

If I am told that a ghost has been seen, and I 
care to make an investigation of the statement, I 
quite naturally ask — as the A B C of my inquiry — 
the name of the man who saw it and his residence, 
and a verdict of the jury of his vicinage as to his 
saneness and veracity and his mental and other 
habits. 

How unfortunate if he be dead, or is otherwise 
inaccessible so that we can not cross-examine him! 
In that event we are likely to sigh, shrug our shoulders, 
and pass on, for credulity in matters of this kind 
varies inversely as the square of the distance 
from the original source, or possibly in keeping with 
the ratio in some other of nature's curious formulas. 

No one likes to be thought an "easy mark." The 



A SYMPATHETIC ATTITUDE 3 

stoutest of us is apt to wince under the inquiring 
gaze of old friends who seem to say: "Wonder if 
it is paresis of the brain, or some congenital defect 
just now coming to the surface ! " 

I have sought in the various experiences narrated 
in these pages — except now and then when profes- 
sional psychics are involved — to give names, dates, 
and places, but the unsympathetic attitude of a 
large part of the public has sometimes, I am sorry to 
say, defeated this purpose. 
A few typical cases will illustrate this point : 
In Chapter V. I give a remarkable story as told 
to me by a personal friend who is a publisher and 
author of some reputation, and is a practising physi- 
cian. It is a story of his own personal experience. 
He is convinced that one evening while in Florida 
he actually passed out of his body, and yet retained 
a most vivid conscious existence. In the few hours 
of his discarnate state he visited the family of a 
friend a thousand miles distant, saw what they were 
doing, and heard them talk, was recognized and 
spoken to by his friend, and after other experiences 
he returned and by a supreme effort of the will he 
reentered his body and regained control of it. He 
gives this important corroboration of the story: 
the following morning he wrote a letter to his distant 
friend narrating his experience at his home, what 



4 IDENTITY CONCEALED 

he there saw the family do and what he heard them 
say. And the distant friend that same morning 
wrote to him narrating how he had seen him in his 
room the night before, and what he had said to him, 
and that now he was greatly alarmed lest some 
misfortune had befallen him. These two letters 
crossed each other in transit. It should be remem- 
bered that this story is told by a trained physician 
who knows the symptoms of approaching death, 
and who is also an experimental psychologist. How 
much more satisfactory it would be to the reader, 
and certainly to the scientist, were I permitted to 
give the name and address of this physician, the 
name and location of his friend, and other details 
of his strange experience. But, no, this physician 
feels that he must hide his identity under anonym- 
ity, as publicity of this sort would hurt him pro- 
fessionally. 

"'Tis true 'tis pity; and pity 'tis 'tis true." 

A man who is the head of an extensive banking 
establishment, and whose name is known from 
Penobscot Bay to the Golden Gate as a synonym 
for veracity and level-headedness, declines to per- 
mit his name to appear in support of certain per- 
sonal psychic experiences, "For," says he, "my 
Board of Directors would be startled and many of our 



WOULD COINCIDENCE EXPLAIN 5 

customers would feel their confidence shaken in 
my sagacity." 

One more typical instance: The mother of a 
public man of some professional fame, who lives 
not far distant from my home in Brooklyn, told 
me a few days before this writing that one morning 
a valued servant who had great affection for her 
was severely burned, and was taken to the hospital. 
She says: "On the evening of that day I went to 
bed leaving the light in my room dimly burning. I 
was suddenly aroused from sleep by a noise as of the 
falling of a weight in the room. As I opened my 
eyes I saw standing in front of my bed the servant 
whom I had seen that day taken to the hospital. 
I sprang immediately from the bed, but the form 
had disappeared. I turned the light up full, but no 
one was in the room except myself. Looking at the 
time I saw that it was 11:30 o'clock. Next morning 
as quickly as I had breakfasted I started for the 
hospital, but was met by one of the doctors who was 
coming to tell me that the woman had died during 
the night, and upon inquiry I found that she had 
died at 11:30 o'clock." 

No manner of urging could prevail upon this friend 
to allow me to give her name or the name and loca- 
tion of the hospital — all necessary in the work of 
verification. "No, no/' she protested, "people 



6 PSYCHIC EXPERIENCE NEEDED 

will laugh at me or say that I was dreaming or am 
foolish." 

The science of psychology must be constructed out 
of a great multitude of psychic experiences. Yet, 
many of these experiences do not come to all, but to 
those only of certain temperament, or who seem to 
have developed certain psychic powers or faculties. 

Vast and varied is the field yet to be explored and 
many are the cases that must be scientifically exam- 
ined before the truth will be surely known. 

The following typical utterances reveal that wide 
apart as the poles are many of the explanations 
accepted by leaders — and these are only a few of a 
score: Lombroso, the well-known Italian scientist, 
is reported within the past few months as saying: 
"For fourteen years I have believed in psychic 
phenomena, and I have witnessed many wonderful 
things under satisfactory test conditions — among 
these have been cases of genuine materialization. 
Yet I am not a spiritualist, .for Spiritualism 
implies that the soul is an emanation direct from 
God, while I believe that the soul is an emanation 
from the brain." 1 

1 In an article in The Grand Review, London, January, 
1907, Lombroso announces his acceptance finally of the 
spirit hypothesis. 



DIVERGENT EXPLANATIONS 7 

Dr. Encausse (Papus) in his book, 'TOccultisme et 
le Spiritualisme," says that between the immortal 
spirit and the physical body of man there is an in- 
termediary, the astral body. Man is " compared to 
an equipage, the vehicle representing the physical 
body, the horse the astral body, and the coachman 
the spirit/' This astral body is able to go out from 
the body of the medium, and to it are due all the 
phenomena of " exteriorization " from luminosities to 
materializations. 

The Jesuit, Father Franco, in La Civilta Cattolica 
(Rome), a supposed organ of the Pope and the 
Conclave, says, in substance: Spiritualistic phe- 
nomena are real, not imaginary; that no one but a 
fool can any longer withstand the accumulating 
testimony in favor of these phenomena; that any 
further attempt to dispute the genuineness of all this 
testimony is simply absurd; but to communicate 
with these spirit intelligences is wicked, and has 
been forbidden by the Sacred Roman Congregation: 
" ' As matters stand, it is not allowable ' and the voice 
of the Vicar of Jesus Christ confirmed the sentence 
of the Inquisition" — this, in answer to a Catholic 
woman who asked whether she might attend seances 
at which she believed her little child came back from 
the dead and sat upon her knee. 

Dr. G. Maxwell, Deputy-General in France, tho 



8 SCOFFING NOT WISE 

not a spiritualist, but a most careful investigator, 
goes so far to the other side as to say: 

" We ought to consider mediums as precious beings. Why 
should we stigmatize them as degenerate? Rather should 
we view them as beacons on the road we have to follow — 
prophecies of the future type of the human race." 

Exclude the innumerable fakers who have made 
the name medium a term of reproach, then these 
words of Dr. Maxwell are not too strong, no matter 
which of the more likely explanatory hypotheses we 
may accept. 

To kill a goose that lays a golden egg of so great 
a contingent value may easily prove the slayer to be 
the greater goose of the two. Dr. Maxwell advances 
in explanation of some of these phenomena, in his 
recent book, 1 the theory of "a consciousness of the 
circle " which is developed through the medium and 
the "sitters." 

Instead of scoffing at the telling of this class of 
experiences, it were better — far wiser, surely — to 
encourage the telling of them, when there is reason 
to believe that they are honestly told. In no other 
way can the facts needed be supplied to scientists 
in sufficient variety and abundance. 

If Plutarch is to be trusted, Brutus did not hesitate 

1 " Metapsychical Phenomena." 



PICKING NATURE'S LOCKS 9 

to give to the world an experience that he had on 
the night before the fatal battle of Philippi — an 
experience which Dr. Encausse, by the way, would 
attribute to the action of Brutus's own astral body: 

"The whole army lay in sleep and silence, while Brutus, 
wrapt in meditation, thought he perceived something 
enter his tent; turning toward the door, he saw a horrible 
and monstrous specter standing silently by his side! 'What 
art thou?' said he boldly, 'Art thou God or man? And 
what is thy business with me?' The specter answered, 
1 1 am thy evil genius, Brutus! Thou wilt see me at Philippi.' 
To which he calmly replied, 'I'll meet thee there.' " * 

A critic — who happens to be a very wealthy man — 
writes to me "you are knocking at the door of the 
unknowable/' He should have said "of the undis- 
covered." Another writer terms these labors more 
picturesquely as "an attempt to pick the locks of 
realms purposely shut out from us." How does he 
know that they are " purposely shut out from us"? 
In the same way every step forward, every new dis- 
covery has been in a manner "the picking of locks." 

This "wave of the hand" method of getting rid 
of troublesome questions is easier than wise and is 
never conclusive ; had it always been followed, the 
world would still be groping in the night of some far 
away prehistoric age. It is not the way science 
has come, nor is it the way of future progress. 

1 Marcus Brutus, Plutarch's Lives, p. 631. 



10 TRUTH HUMBLY BORN 

These psychic phenomena, if they are real facts, 
we may rest assured, will fall into their proper rela- 
tions, and will be found to be natural — not uncanny 
nor shivery — will seem a matter of course when once 
they are assimilated by our sensory and social and 
intellectual consciousness, and will belong to the 
science of living as much as do eating, the making 
of money, music, pictures. 

With some hope that I may help persuade the 
Public so to change its attitude as to make the task 
of telling of this class of experiences an easier one, I 
will, in this volume, "keep hammering away" with 
my own experiences even "at the risk," to quote 
John Fiske, " of being considered a victim of crotch- 
ets," consoling myself with these other words of 
that Cambridge philosopher, " for this is not an over- 
intelligent generation." 

Truth is usually born in a stable and cradled in a 
manger, passes through its Gethsemane and is crowned 
with thorns and duly crucified. In making its ad- 
vent I have often wondered that it does not always 
come with a train of ambulances to care for its 
wounded; but really no one is hurt who really cares 
for the truth and has patience. As said the Master, 
"Some of you shall they cause to be put to death, 
and ye shall be hated of all men, but there shall not 
a hair of your head perish; in your patience possess 



TRUTH-SEEKING SAFE 11 

ye your souls/' Hatred and killing are trifles 
viewed from the cosmic 's view-point. 

Nor has truth ever injured the human race, but 
the misapprehension of it and the fear of it have. 
Safety is in investigation, and in more investigation, 
until error and misapprehension and fear are ex- 
cluded. 

Likely enough the publication of these extraor- 
dinary phenomena will bring me many suggestions 
of precautions that should have been taken. This 
has been my experience heretofore. These suggested 
precautions happen to be almost always the ABC 
of investigation, the first to be thought of and pro- 
vided for by almost even every tyro-investigator. 
It is curious how little credit one is apt to get for 
common sense in affairs of this kind. By some 
inscrutable provision of Providence the men who 
understand just how best to investigate are those 
who are enabled to devote little or no attention to 
the task. 

The press — much of it — has been fair in its treat- 
ment of what I have had to say from time to time 
about psychic matters. To be sure the funny editor, 
as "Mul" of the Brooklyn Citizen, has poked fun 
profusely; but, like the clown in the circus, he is 
paid for being funny. He gets his money, and the 
readers get their laugh — well, if with it all the press 



12 THE BLACK ART 

will publish the facts as discovered by the various 
investigators there will be little cause for complaint. 
The printer's art, with its many good qualities, 
is the real black art of this age. The opinion of 
some worthless fellow which would not carry a 
feather's weight were he to express it with his lips 
and with our eyes upon him — that same opinion 
once clothed with this magic art may have potency 
to lift an empire off its hinges. Ah ; if we could al- 
ways look to the man behind the pen ! 

What is there in an attempt to see if the existence 
of a spirit world — good or bad — can be scientifically 
demonstrated, that should give offense to the ears 
of Churchmen? Spiritualism in its present blunder- 
ing stage of development is a scientific problem, 
not a religion. 

To-day in the seance-room, much, very much, of 
what there passes for religion is gross materialism — 
an attempt to yoke up the spirit world with this 
present world to pull our earthly mud-carts along. 
Many, very many, spiritualists seem to care for 
communion with spirits only that they may more 
surely keep physically well, and earn their bread 
and butter and clothing the easier, and, at the best, 
be assured that after they "shuffle off this mortal 
coil" they will continue to be. Again and again 



MATERIALISTIC SPIRITUALISM 13 

in these seance circles we hear inquiries like the 
following: "Have I opened my mine on the right 
side of that hill ? " " Will I strike oil where I am now 
boring?" "Can I win the hand I am seeking?" 
" Is the horse whose name I have written on this slip 
of paper the winning one? " " I have lost my pocket- 
book, can you tell me where it is?" — ad nauseam. 

It has not been my good fortune to meet many 
in spiritualistic circles who seem to attend that 
thereby they may grow in love to God and man, 
in humility, in conscience, in holiness. But, I would 
that this were not also a grievous fault of the Church. 
Did Spiritualism spell spirituality it would quickly 
make far greater inroads into the church and world, 
for never did a time seem more ready to welcome 
an incoming tidal wave of a true spirituality. When 
has man been physically so prosperous as to-day, 
and when so profoundly unsatisfied? Events are 
logic. 

By making our ideals of heaven "natural" and 
earthly we think we have risen, as sometimes by an 
optical illusion we imagine that we have grown in 
stature when the truth is our surroundings have 
sunk. 

The reader throughout the perusal of these strange 
stories should bear in mind that it is not supersti- 



14 SCIENTISTS LEADING 

tion, that it is not ignorance that is now pressing 
this psychic question upon the public mind; instead 
it is the experiences and observations and reasonings 
of trained scientists as Lombroso of Italy; Richet 
and Flammarion and Maxwell of France; Crookes, 
Lodge, and Wallace of England; Hyslop, James, and 
(until his recent death) Hodgson of America. 



II 



SOME REASONS WHY THE STUDY OF PSYCHIC PROB- 
LEMS BY SCIENTIFIC MEN SHOULD BE ENCOURAGED 

"The work of the Society for Psychical Research is the 
most important work which is being done in the world to- 
day — by far the most important." — William E. Gladstone. 1 

The phrase " Psychic Phenomena " covers a rapidly 
expanding domain, imperfectly recognized and im- 
perfectly defined. 

In these investigations it seems certain that we are 
in the presence of a new science in the making — 
a science that many of us believe has in it possibilities 
for good that stagger the imagination. Here is a 
Gordian knot that can not be cut; it must be pa- 
tiently untied. For half a century we have slashed 
at it with our blades of prejudice and superstition — 
often negative, but none the less real — of ridicule, 
logic, science, orthodoxy, but it has grown all the 
time more and more manifest and more and more 
complicated. 

My own judgment is very clear as to the course 
that should be followed in America. 

1 In a letter accepting membership in the society. 

15 



16 SYSTEMATIC INVESTIGATION 

This— 

An organization be formed and strongly supported 
financially — endowed by so large a sum as $1,000,- 
000, — and this organization engage a half-dozen 
of the world's ablest and most progressive psychol- 
ogists, who shall search out and develop a number 
of sensitives or psychics, one or two for each of the 
several classes of phenomena, — these psychics to be 
guarded against the temptations of public medium- 
ship by salaries that will support them, and they in 
turn to submit to patient investigation for psychic 
phenomena, as has Mrs. Piper in Boston for the past 
twenty years under the direction of the late Dr. 
Richard Hodgson of the Society for Psychical 
Research. 1 

1 Professor Hyslop within the past few months has incor- 
porated an institute of this character, and awaits a sufficient 
endowment — scarcely awaits, since he has undertaken the 
work with $25,000 now in hand, having issued the January 
and February numbers of the Journal of the American 
Society for Psychical Research, the official organ of Section 
"B" of this Institute. Will not every reader of these pages 
become, at least, an Associate Member of this organization 
by sending his name and $5 to James H. Hyslop, 519 West 
149th St., New York City? Ah! It 10,000 persons should 
do this it would give an income of $50,000 a year — a sum 
amply sufficient to enable the Board of Trustees to carry 
on their work scientifically and efficiently. I make this 
request without any suggestion from Professor Hyslop, 
and with full consciousness of the fact that he and I do not 



TREMENDOUSLY WORTH WHILE 17 

The work of such a society should prove tremen- 
dously worth while. Lieutenant Peary and scores 
of other explorers have made trips toward the North 
Pole, and have spent hundreds of thousands of 
dollars and immense labor, and have endured vast 
suffering — and all of the civilized world has been 
greatly interested in the efforts of these explorers 
and in their reports of the climate, geography, life 
or lack of life in those North regions, and yet we 
never expect to live under those polar skies. But 
the world to which our dead go, and to which we must 
all go, should be of vastly greater interest to us, and so 
should all intelligent efforts to sift to the bottom any 
rumor of the slightest communication from thither. 
And this "beyond" is only one of the vast unex- 
plored possible realms within the psychic domain. 

The shell of the universe, the outwork, the coarse, 
the visible, absorbs our attention and we pass by as 
uncanny, or unworthy of thought, its inner realms — 
its heart, the refined, the real, the eternal parts. 

Speaker Cannon wrote in reference to the " Widow's 
Mite": "The material universe, it seems to me, 

fully agree in our methods of investigation — he has his way, 
and I mine; he gets excellent results by his methods, and I 
am well satisfied with the outcome of my methods. I do 
not hesitate to say that in my judgment there is not a better 
equipped man in America to manage such an Institute than 
is Professor Hyslop. 
2 



18 PLATEAUS UPON PLATEAUS 

affords a field of investigation sufficient to occupy 
the human race for several millions of years." 

Yes, yes ; but what of us individually during these 
several millions of years? And what if intelligent 
foresight and provision on our part should prove essen- 
tial requisites for this the next step in our evolution? 
What man has measured the profundity of this utter- 
ance that has come down through the ages: 

KNOW THYSELF ! 

And what if it be true that the visible and tangible 
portions of this earth are its smallest and least im- 
portant parts? Why is the belief necessarily absurd 
that there are belonging to the earth and revolving 
with it, plateaus upon plateaus of finer and still 
finer vibrations, the higher usually invisible to the 
lower, and that the lowest and coarsest is the ground 
under our feet and the great oceans of water around 
us? 

Longfellow when he penned these lines may have 
been a seer as well as a poet — one who sees: 

The spirit-world around this world of sense 
Floats like an atmosphere ; and everywhere 

Wafts through these earthly mists and vapors dense 
A vital breath of more ethereal air. 

Note such problems as these which belong to the 
psychic domain that are awaiting solution: 

1. Note what is now called secondary personality. 



PROBLEMS TO BE SOLVED 19 

This points to the truth of the new psychological 
theory that of the billions of cells in the brain only 
a comparatively small number are awake or active in 
the average man; and should his personality call into 
activity another group of cells, then the expression of 
himself to his fellows will be different, and he will not 
be recognized. 1 The French psychologists have 
made many experiments in this field and are just 
now making many more. 

We know each other only by the segments of our- 
selves which come to view above the threshold of 
consciousness. As the solar spectrum reveals only 
a fragment of the forces in light, other forces are 
above the waves that make ultra-violet, and others 
below that make ultra-red, and all the heat waves, 
the chemical waves, the Hertzian waves — so each 
spirit or mind spectrum as revealed in consciousness 
is limited. Who can tell how far below or above 
consciousness extend the powers of the soul? 2 

2. Note the power of hypnosis — the power of one 
will to enslave another. Who has satisfactorily 
interpreted the obsessions in Bible times? Christ 



1 See Dr. Morton Prince's recent book, " Dissociation of 
a Personality, " for description of the multiple personality as 
revealed in Sally Beauchamp — also Dailey's " Life of Mollie 
Fancher." 

2 "The Widow's Mite," page 9. 



20 THOUGHT TRANSFERENCE 

talked to the foreign intelligences who controlled 
human bodies — bodies not their own. He com- 
manded and they obeyed Him and made their power 
manifest elsewhere. Can we be sure that no phe- 
nomena of that kind are taking place to-day? There 
are expert alienists who do not hesitate to declare 
that this hypothesis of control by foreign intelli- 
gences is the easiest explanation of many cases to be 
found in the insane asylums that come under their 
experience. Here is an immense division in the 
psychic domain that calls for gravest consideration. 
What are the facts, laws, limits of hypnosis? We 
await clarifying answers from psychologists. 

3. Note the possibility of Thought Transfer- 
ence. "Absurd!" Thus men so great as Plato, 
Ptolemy, Archimedes, received the thought of 
Pythagoras that the earth revolves on its axis — 
and so we all thought the other day about wireless 
telegraphy. William Stead, the Editor of the 
Review of Reviews, London, says that many times 
when the conditions are favorable he sits at his desk 
and writes down the thoughts of friends hundreds 
of miles distant. Is it reasonable to attribute to 
coincidence the many cases reported like that of the 
mother in New York who was awakened from sleep 
by the cry of her son, a thousand miles away: 
"Mother, mother, the doctor says I have typhoid"? 



MISTAKES OF SCIENCE 21 

The fact appears that the boy uttered the cry at 
that time in the distant West. 1 

4. Note the chief est problem of all: Do the dead 
live and do they commune with those who are in the 
flesh — this in a manner that makes possible their iden- 
tification f If it is a fact that such communications 
take place, can the fact be scientifically demonstrated? 
Scientifically demonstrate the fact that every man 
now living will live again, and that somewhere and 
some time he must make amends for every wrong 
done in his present life to another, and that there is 
no possible escape from this law — demonstrate that, 
then it seems sure that civilization will be immeasur- 
ably quickened. Can it be demonstrated? Is it 
not worth a serious attempt? 

"It is impossible, " says a noted scientist, "that the 
dead should live again," 

Ah, the demonstration of a negative! 

The scientists, bless them, have a prior mortgage 
on all the secrets of the Universe. Columbus was no 
scientist, and they laughed him out of court. But 
luckily for Columbus and the world, Isabella was a 
sentimentalist and a dreamer. And as to Jenner, 
what a fool idea was his about cows and vaccination ! 

1 Those who wish to follow this matter further will find 
many similar cases given in Part 3, "Widow's Mite," and 
in the publications of the Society for Psychical Research. 



22 WALTER SCOTT'S BLUNDER 

It took a good part of a century to get the scientists 
to look through Galileo's telescope. Magendie and 
many another scientist pooh-poohed the pretension 
that anesthesia could make possible the painless 
amputation of a leg or an arm. Bouillaud was only 
one of many wise scientists in the French Academy 
who solved the mystery of the phonograph, as a 
trick of ventriloquism; nor would those learned 
skeptics of this same French Academy, less than a 
century ago, believe for a minute the testimony of 
common farmer folks that they had seen stones fall 
from the sky. In vain did these people declare 
that they had seen this wonder with their own eyes. 
" Is it anything strange for the eyes to deceive us? " 
cried out Lavoisier; "why do not stones fall in our 
sight — in the sight of men with scientifically trained 
eyes and level heads? Are they afraid of us? Ah, 
there are no stones in the sky, therefore it is prima 
facie absurd that any should fall from the sky." 
Lord Kelvin long settled hypnosis with a wave of 
the hand as "mostly fraud, and the remainder mal- 
observation." Even Lord Bacon, the "father of 
modern science," was incredulous to impatience 
with the Copernican system, and Gilbert's magnet. 
How many, many of our intellectual leaders in 
every age are everlastingly incredulous as to new 
truths — incredulous as was Sir Walter Scott when, 



AFRAID OF GHOSTS 23 

on writing from London to a friend in Edinburgh 
about the first of the last century, he said: "There 
is an idiot here in London, who declares that he can 
light the city with coal-gas passed through a tube." 

There are scientific societies in America as in Europe 
that include in their name, as Huxley would say, the 
slightly ironical phrase: "for the advancement of 
science/' and yet leave out of their investigations 
psychic facts, the most significant of all facts now 
above the horizon — facts as to secondary personality, 
transference of thought, the healing power in sug- 
gestion, apparitions of the living, etc., etc. 

The superstitious fear of superstition — this nega- 
tive superstition — may be more obstructive to truth 
than the most positive superstition. 

Samuel Butler, with a curious shrinking from ghosts, 
wrote : 

"I had a very dear friend once, whom I believed to be 
dying, and so did she. We discussed the question whether 
she could communicate with me after death. 'Promise,' 
I said, and very solemnly, 'that if you can send a message 
to me, you will never avail yourself of the means, nor let 
me hear from you when you are once departed.' " 

What is this other than an unmistakable note of 
superstitious fear? We blame, and justly, spirit- 
ualists because of their unreasoning superstition, but 
who, among them, exhibits more superstition than 
did Dr. Butler in the above, when, through a childish 



24 BY THE HAND OF GOD 

fear of ghosts, he begged his dying friend not to 
return to him after death, even if she found herself 
able to do so? If there are ghosts, they are facts, 
and every fact is an integral part of the universe, 
and we can be fully assured that ample provision 
has been made for it by the great Architect — for 
sufficient is the provision for every fact unto the day 
[need] thereof. 

"In vain we call all these things fudge, 
A fact is a fact, and will not budge." 

If a psychic phenomenon is really a fact it is so not 
by the grace of man, but by the hand of God; and 
reason should tell us not to be afraid of it, but to try 
to understand and accept it. 

There are many scientists who are already doing 
admirable work in this field, and there are many 
more who also would do admirable work, but are 
prevented from engaging in it by fear of public talk, 
as this talk may tell against their soundness of judg- 
ment, if not their sanity. "You know," said a 
professional man to me, " one in my position can not 
afford to be thought to be given to crotchets." 

Charles Richet, one of the chiefest of French 
scientists, recently felt it necessary, because of his 
psychic investigations, to make public a statement 
in which he says : " I am firmly decided to pay not 



A BRAVE SCIENTIST 25 

the slightest heed to the mud wave of abuse and 
insult and falsehood." And when he delivered his 
address in London last year as president of the 
Society for Psychical Research he used these words: 
" I still remember when I told my father/ by whose 
wisdom and sagacity I wished to be guided, of my 
studies in this forbidden domain, that he acknowl- 
edged that they were correct. But when I said 
that I wanted to publish them, he dissuaded me, 
saying: 'Do you want to ruin yourself? For- 
tunately/ he went on, 'one is not ruined by advo- 
cating what he believes to be the truth. I have no 
more ruined myself by affirming the reality of in- 
duced somnambulism than Sir William Crookes 
has ruined himself by affirming the existence of 
materializations.' " 2 

An expert whom I consulted concerning certain 
psychic experiments has told me since that, when 
I first informed him of these experiments, he remarked 
to his brother after I had left his place of business: 
"A crank for sure; he has got 'em badly/' tapping 
his forehead significantly. If this is the experience 
which befalls us feeble folk, the great ones must not 
expect to escape. 

"Crank" is an ugly word, to be sure, but its edge 

1 Prof. Alfred Richet, an eminent surgeon in Paris. 
3 Annals of Psychical Science, April, 1906, pp. 215-260. 



26 TRUTH ALWAYS SAFE 

has been worn rather blunt with frequent indis- 
criminate use. 

But there is some consolation in the thought that 
it has ever been thus at every step upward that the 
world has taken. Socrates was thought crack- 
brained and a dangerous fellow and compelled to 
drink the hemlockian tea. And Paul says he was 
counted a fool, the Roman governor assuring him 
that he was "beside himself"; and the family of 
even the Master, the sanest mind the world ever saw, 
were ashamed of Him and wanted to get Him out 
of the crowd. Time and again somebody has got to 
stand in the path of the world and cry "Halt!" at 
the risk of being run over and trampled into the mud. 
(jBut be patient, there is no injustice in the universe. 
Equal and exact is the measure meted out to every 
individual — that is, in the long run. 

And herein is a curious thing: a scientist will tell 
you that science is in its embryo state; that, if a 
scientist knew any one thing absolutely, that is, 
in its last analysis, he could expound the universe; 
that, in a thousand years from now, you could not 
in all probability recognize the science of to-day, 
and yet the scientist of to-day would give his mental 
finger tips for the approval of the Royal Society of 
England or of the French Academy, or of the American 
Association for the Advancement of Science. 



A GREAT ADVANCE 27 

Yet it is true that scientists are giving increasing 
attention to psychic matters, and wisely so. Said 
one who is a recognized leader recently: "It may 
seem curious for me to say it, but it will be found 
true that the time is not in the far distance when 
scientists will lead the clergy to a real rational faith 
in the spiritual world." Curious indeed should it 
turn out true that scientists, whose chief business 
has to do with the world of matter, should restore 
a workaday belief in the spiritual world to preachers, 
whose chief business has to do with the world of 
spirits ! 

In the last twenty years scientists have learned to 
respect greatly forces and entities that are beyond 
the five senses. They now tell us that the inter- 
stellar ocean of ether must be thought, we can not 
see it, feel it, nor hear it, and yet it exists. Lord 
Kelvin thinks the electron, which is so small that it 
would take something like 100,000 of them to make 
an atom, and an atom is too small for the most 
powerful microscope to recognize. Radium, the 
x-ray, the discussion about the n-ray, the vibration 
theory of the universe — all are making it easier and 
still easier every year for scientists to believe with 
Paul, that the invisible things are the more real things, 
that the visible, the audible, and the tangible are 
secondary effects, not causes. As said Balfour in 



28 SCIENCE LISTENING 

his lecture before the scientists at Bristol (1904) : 
"Matter has not only been explained, it has been 
explained away." 

I repeat we know only superficially the things 
about us in the little space we occupy; and this space 
is a speck on the earth, and the entire earth is a speck 
in the universe. Then how absurdly foolish of us 
to say of anything, that it is impossible, that is, of 
anything outside of the instinctive and the axio- 
matic, outside of pure mathematics. Leaders, with 
insight, in every science, last of all in psychology, 
through expert investigation, good humor and com- 
mon sense, are making their way against inertia, 
official and officious conservatism, dignity and red 
tape. This in spite of the outburst of ignorance and 
folly in many quarters whenever is mentioned the 
spirit hypothesis in connection with psychic phe- 
nomena. All men on both sides of this question 
should keep level heads — never more necessary than 
in the present time. 

To-day Science through many of her leaders, with 
hand to her ear, is leaning forward to hear those 
whisperings that are coming with increasing dis- 
tinctness from the investigations of that youngest 
of her daughters which lately has been happily 
christened "metapsychical." It is almost startling 
to one so conservative as am I to see how far really 



SCIENCE "DO MOVE" 29 

some of the ablest of the world's scientists now go. 
Sir William Crookes, accepting the Presidency of the 
British Association for the Advancement of Science 
in 1898, in the presence of that august body 
did not hesitate to say that he had seen no reason 
to change his reports of actual spirit materializations 
witnessed and photographed by himself in his own 
home. In the April number, 1906, of the Annals 
of Psychical Science — published simultaneously in 
Paris and London — that chiefest of the French 
physicists, Charles Richet, hotly defended his recent 
marvelous reports of materialization seances which 
he tells us he witnessed under test conditions a short 
time before in Algiers — wonderful phenomena, spirits 
actually taking form so as to be seen and heard and 
handled. These extraordinary marvels Richet re- 
ported over his own name in a scientific magazine 
published under the direction of a committee made up 
of such well-known scientists as Sir William Crookes, 
Caesar Lombroso of Italy, Dr. Joseph Maxwell of 
France, Sir Oliver Lodge, men of international fame 
as trained scientists. 

The scientific world "do move," but at times I am 
seriously afraid that when once it gets fairly started it 
will move toward psychic conclusions more rapidly 
than strict scientific demonstration will fully justify. 
These scientists who are experts in handling physical 



30 CHURCH LARGELY HOSTILE * 

i» 

forces may not be experts in the investigation of 
psychic phenomena. These latter require qualifica- 
tions of a somewhat different order. 

The Roman Catholic Church is unanimously, or 
nearly so, against Spiritualism, and the Protestant 
Church is largely hostile. 

Why? 

In reply to this question a representative clergy- 
man gave me this answer: 

" I have not been able to recognize among the results that 
come from the seance-room those that compel in me the con- 
viction that the intelligences behind them are not from ' spiri- 
tual wickedness in high places.' Often it seems to me that the 
explanation squints in the direction of the old-fashioned 
obsessions by evil or imperfect spirits, and the communica- 
tions impress me as unprofitable and sometimes as dan- 
gerous." 

This clergyman might have added that the trance 
or hypnotic condition of the medium, which so often 
seems necessary at these seances, may prove a great 
psychological danger and should not be indulged 
in promiscuously, at least until psychology better 
understands the laws that govern this abnormal 
condition of the mind or soul. 

Aside from the complicated psychic difficulties 
that surround these phenomena, how is the average 
man to protect himself against the trickery to be 
found in so many stance-rooms? In the ruins of 
ancient temples the tell-tale speaking-tubes running 



DANIEL EXPOSES FRAUD 31 

up to the roof from the altars reveal how the priests 
in olden times fooled the people who gathered to- 
gether to consult their gods. These priests caused 
the smoke from the incense to ascend in clouds to 
the ceiling and then by a kind of magic lantern made 
to appear on the smoke the faces of these gods, and 
the speaking-tubes enabled the priests to complete the 
fooling. 

In the apocryphal book " Bel and the Dragon " we 
are told how Daniel revealed to Cyrus the King of Baby- 
lon a trick by which the court priests were fooling 
him, inducing him to provide each evening a great 
quantity of choicest provisions for the great god 
Bel to eat, but which they and their wives and chil- 
dren ate. By the neat device of a thin layer of 
ashes sprinkled on the floor of the temple and on the 
altar steps, Daniel was able to reveal the foot-prints 
of the tricky priests and the secret door under the 
altar by which they and their families entered the 
temple notwithstanding the door of the temple " was 
shut and sealed with the king's signet." Daniel was 
a clever investigator. 

People can not be duped so easily nowadays as in 
olden times, but the average man is not proof against 
the cunning of the able tricksters that invest so 
many of the seance-rooms. 

Nevertheless there is another side to this question 



32 DOES GOD CHANGE 

which I venture to ask churchmen carefully to con- 
sider. 

Let us reason together. We believe God's angelic 
host did things and said things among the Israelites 
two thousand and three thousand years ago, and 
that it is wise for us to study these things. We are 
r ight in this; but why is it necessarily absurd to 
believe that his angelic host are doing things and 
saying things among us to-day? Does God change? 
Is there nothing going on to-day akin to the angel 
talks with Abraham and Lot and Jacob and Sam- 
son and the prophets and the apostles — akin to 
the talk of Moses and Elias with Christ on the 
Mount about "things shortly to happen"? Has the 
exhortation of Paul no meaning to us, that among 
the best gifts to be coveted is that of "discerning 
spirits " ? 

God — the cosmic mind — is forever one and the 
same. In these later generations He has not tied 
Himself nor His heavenly hosts with laws so that 
He and they can no longer be communicative, be 
pitiful and just — now as in the olden times. Are 
we to believe that we are surrounded by " a multitude 
of witnesses " who have the " gift of silence " but not 
of speech? But whether it be silence or speech, why 
prejudge it? Nor, whatever it is, is it of any use 
to find fault with it. The only question is what is the 



PSYCHIC RESEARCH HELPFUL 33 

fact. In the Father's house there is room for every 
fact and abundant provision for it. 

And let us everlastingly remember that God has 
made the universe fire-proof, and hence has deemed 
it safe to permit man to play with the match-box. 
We should be held by this truth as a ship is held 
by its anchor — the ship rides swaying hither and 
thither but is held. 

A few years ago when the Society for Psychical 
Research began its work, the scientists of that day, 
Darwin, Huxley, Tyndall, Spencer, scarcely recog- 
nized anything but a sort of physical psychology, 
a mind or brain that secretes thought as a gland 
secretes fluids, placing an impenetrable wall between 
the living and the dead. Now psychic research 
has proved to not a few scientists that death is the 
opening of the golden gates, and yet what has been 
recognized as psychic phenomena compared to what 
it seems likely will be are but as the droppings from 
the eaves when compared to Niagara. 

It is said that the spiritistic movement in becom- 
ing scientific has struck a side-track and has ceased 
to be religious. Yes, but what if this side-track 
proves to be the main road, and that main road proves 
to be Christianity newly interpreted through the new 
intellectual light which is thereby revealed? What 
if Crookes and Lodge and Wallace and James and 



34 TRUTHFINDING 

Hyslop should succeed in placing a scientific founda- 
tion under psychic communications and these com- 
munications should place a scientific foundation under 
a future existence and make scientifically possible 
and believable the birth and resurrection of Christ? 
Would not that be religious? 

And what if psychic research is the scientific un- 
foldings of God's plan in these later days when 
criticism is making it harder and still harder to believe 
testimony that has come down to us through ages 
of darkness? 

Put a scientific certainty under faith in the con- 
tinuity of life, then it is easy to believe that the 
Church will no longer hobble along on crutches, 
hobble even tho the crutches be of gold; but that 
it will fly as in the pentecostal days. At every step 
of progress there is need not only of courage and of a 
lofty idealism, but also of common sense, of sanity — 
never more need than to-day. 

In psychic investigation, notwithstanding the man- 
ifold dangers of deception, it is very important that 
a chief aim be that of truth-finding instead of fraud- 
finding. The danger of deception is real and the 
results are often deplorable; and yet much may be 
said sanely on the other side. 

We are turning the world's energy to find out the 



CAUSES OF ERROR 35 

trick in these phenomena instead of their meaning — 
the way to which they point. Thomas and other 
disciples might easily have spent years in the study 
of psychology, of the influence of the subjective mind 
on appearances after death, and in the study of leger- 
demain in order to have reached a scientific con- 
clusion as to how Christ fed the five thousand, and 
as to how, after His crucifixion, He could have come 
into that room, with the doors closed, and talked to 
them. Had modern scientists been there, that is 
probably what would have taken place — and likely 
enough if I had been there that is what I would 
have done. Ah, the loss to the world had the dis- 
ciples followed this course! An inch of confidence 
is at times worth many a yard of suspicion in solving 
this class of problems. 

In the days of Columbus, what if there had been 
hundreds of tricksters who pretended that they had 
sailed across the ocean and had communicated with 
the hitherto unknown western world? That could 
not have invalidated the fact one iota that there 
was a western world, and that Columbus knew it 
and knew the way to it and had visited it and talked 
with its inhabitants. 

There are many elements other than intentional 
fraud that may account for errors that appear in 
psychic communications. It is well to remember 



36 POSSIBLE DIFFICULTIES 

that the reality of manifestations is one thing, and 
their reliability quite another. 

The following purported to come to me from a 
foreign intelligence, in a seance-room, "The light 
which angels impart should be as rigidly tested as the 
light that comes from earthly teachers, for all angels 
were once mortals on this or some other planet, as 
earth men to-day are unborn angels." 

We are apt to conclude if a spirit is somewhere 
that he is everywhere, and if he knows anything 
he knows all things. Quite likely knowledge there, 
as here, comes with growth. Character is never a 
gift; we grow it. It may be the growth of many 
generations. Then it is easy to believe that innu- 
merable spirits of all grades, from light to dark, are 
about us and ready to break in at any opening. The 
seance-room may be often an open door to an un- 
seen world of innumerable intelligences of all grades. 
"Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the 
spirits." 1 

Besides, again and again these strange communi- 
cations tell us that it is an exceedingly difficult thing 
for spirits to communicate with earth, that they 
also make use of mediums on their side, and that the 
spirit that communicates with us usually enters 

1 1 John iv. 1 



FORGE OF SUGGESTION 37 

into an abnormal condition, similar to that of trance, 
as we know trance on this side of the death line. 
They assure us that when in this condition it is often 
difficult for spirits to remember what they wished to 
say, difficult for them even to think or talk straight, 
and at times they grow so confused as to forget im- 
portant happenings in their earthly history, as dates 
of their birth and death, and even at times their 
own names. These Spirit personalities seem now and 
then at times to become blended with the medium's 
on their side or with the medium's on our side, and 
the communication thus becomes hopelessly confused. 
All this sounds very queer, and much like spiritualistic 
hedging, but it is part of the problem to be carefully 
considered. There is much more of it; for example, 

Note this — 

A member in a circle may call for a friend when 
immediately a communicating intelligence, by, pos- 
sibly, the force of suggestion, thinks himself to be that 
friend and so communicates, catching thought vibra- 
tions from the inquirer's mind or the mind of the 
medium, or from some other member of the circle, 
or it may be from a distance and gives to the inquirer 
many startling personal facts. 

Vanity, egotism, conceit, or other strong positive 
psychic elements may exaggerate out of all proportion 
the personal interests of a member of the circle — 



38 A LIVELY IMAGINATION 

a genius of vanity and conceit it may be. I have 
in mind such a one who attends a circle of which I 
am sometimes an investigating member. His cre- 
dulity is amusingly absurd when his egotism is 
addrest. The universe, sun, moon and stars, 
as a matter of course, circle around his earth, and 
he shivers when told that the planet Uranus is in the 
constellation of Capricorn. Should his head ache 
and a medium tell him that the seismographs in the 
planet Mars record its throbbings he will accept it 
without an effort, nor does he doubt for a moment 
when told that Alexander the Great, Socrates, Paul, 
Luther are present in the seance-room to advise him 
as to his proposed trip to California, a suit of clothes 
he is about to buy, or his next automobile ride, or 
the investments in stock he is thinking of making. 
It is altogether in accordance with the fitness of things 
that all this should be done for him. Everything is 
warmed and colored by his lively imagination, quick- 
ened and twisted by his conceit. Such a fellow would 
keep his seat in the chariot tho told a meteor was 
being hitched in the shafts. It is not hard to believe 
that a personality of this kind when present is apt to 
dominate, for the time, the vibratory waves, and 
dominate, it may be, the mediums on both sides, 
and the communications become utterly untrust- 
worthy, being mere echoes of this fellow's super- 



GREAT PATIENCE ESSENTIAL 39 

abundant egotism; and no intentional fraud be com- 
mitted. 

It is believable that a vast number of tests must 
be made, and that there must be much thinking, 
possibly for centuries, before the elements of error 
can be so excluded as to make these communications 
reliable — even provided they are, what they claim to 
be, spirit communications. And yet this work may 
be done quickly. Especially if the two worlds work 
in intelligent cooperation. 

Let us keep our souls in patience and our brains 
wholly sane. It is well to remember that electricity 
for twenty-three hundred years yielded scarcely any 
recognizable phenomena. Yes, amber could be excited 
a little by its electric current, and it could be made to 
raise the hair on a manikin. Yes, yes, currents sent 
through the foot of a frog would curiously contort 
it, which gained for the scientific discoverer of the 
fact the derisive nickname of "The Frogs' Dancing 
Master." But little electricity was believed to be 
obtainable, and those who believed it something 
more than a trick did not venture to think that it 
would ever be anything more than a toy or a curiosity. 
But now the laws are somewhat understood and this 
force, tho only partially controlled and harnessed, 
does a goodly share of the world's work. It 
is not safe to despise seeming trifles. Tesla in 



40 NOT SCIENTIFICALLY PROVEN 

Colorado some time ago declared that there was reason 
to believe that intelligences in Mars were trying to 
communicate with the earth by the numbers " 1, 2; 1, 
2." No one thought to say to Tesla that this message 
is trivial and unworthy of the Martians. 

Now understand me. I do not say that Spiritual- 
ism has been scientifically demonstrated. I say 
exactly the contrary, believing that we are many 
miles distant from such a demonstration. What 
I do say is that such a demonstration is to my mind, 
after nearly thirty -years of investigation, far more 
likely than are the probabilities that Spiritualism 
is not true; that the proofs in favor of its truth are 
much stronger than those against it; that to-day, 
as the proofs stand, a man is more logical, more sane, 
in accepting the Spiritualistic belief of the communion 
of spirits through the physical sensories than he is in 
rejecting it. In my judgment he to-day is wrong in 
either accepting or rejecting it. 

Psychic research at its present stage is a wanderer 
in a vast wilderness that has in it wild beasts and 
fiery serpents in plenty. It is still in its experimental 
stages. Let us not err on either side, that of extreme 
credulity and recklessness, nor that of extreme 
cautious skepticism. 

Above all it would be well to see to it that a wisely 



CHIPS AND "LEFT-OVERS" 41 

directed public opinion and abundant financial assis- 
tance should make it possible for expert scientists 
to give exhaustive systematic investigation into this 
expanding psychic domain. 



MORE OR LESS SUGGESTIVE 

I find in my note-book some jottings which I 
thought to expand into paragraphs for these pre- 
liminary chapters, but space forbids. I venture to 
insert them here, just as they are, unpolished, dis- 
jointed, and unelaborated. Robert Browning at 
one time replied to an admirer who had asked the 
meaning of one of his lines: " Really I can not recall 
just what I did mean by it, but if you will study 
it until you get at my thought I am sure you will 
find it valuable." I have not that comforting con- 
fidence in my writings, but I can safely assure the 
reader that when I wrote these jottings I am cer- 
tain that the thoughts they embodied I believed to 
"be valuable. 

After all, are not the makers of books apt to 
elaborate far more than is necessary? A chess- 
player will sometimes say " Checkmate in five moves," 
and his opponent, looking the board over, reply: 
"Ah, that's so," and much time is saved. May the 
reader here find it safe to do likewise. 



42 CHIPS AND "LEFT-OVERS" 

Quite likely, in psychic phenomena we have an egg that 
will hatch — even likely a nest of eggs. 

May there not be a spiritual or mental ear-drum on which 
thought currents register themselves? But what if that 
ear-drum is so waxed over with earthy matter as to render 
thought vibrations too feeble to be recognized? 

Matter is the spiritual world made objective — flowers, 
trees, animals, man, planets, suns, are expressions of the 
thoughts of the inner world. 

The world of reality — which is it? Ideality may be more 
real and controlling than a beef -steak, or a tree ; a mother's 
love is more real to a child than is candy or cake — that is, 
to any child that is above a clod. The higher we go, the 
truer this is, and truest of all of God, the highest psychic 
element in the universe. 

There are many things that call for ridicule in material- 
ism — many more than there are in spiritualism. But we 
tithe mint and rue and all manner of herbs, and pass over, with 
scarcely a thought, the possibility of spirit growth and life 
beyond and intermundane communion. 

The optic nerve of nearly all men is atrophied — not the 
nerve of the physical eye wherewith we see trees and moun- 
tains, and wheat and gold and silver, the coarse supplies of 
the body — but the optic nerve of the spiritual vision, where- 
with the stupendous real universe is revealed. Oh, that some 
prophet could to-day so touch our eyes that we also might 
see the mountains, land, and air filled with the forces that 
are at work back beyond the puppet show of physical exis- 
tence which we call real, and understand that, as said Lincoln 
at Gettysburg, "This war is being fought over our heads." 

Average human nature dearly loves the marvelous, and 
therein is a danger — the histrionic element is in us all : We 
see things magnified by the mist that rises from an over- 
heated heart touched by a lively imagination. As we tell 



CHIPS AND "LEFT-OVERS" 43 

our experience again and again, corners are rounded, gaps 
are filled, and our sense of the artistic in story-telling con- 
stantly strives to get expression. Vanity also plays a part — 
we love to hold the interest of those with whom we talk; 
it pleases us to feel that we are telling something out of the 
ordinary. Hence it is that the testimony of the average man 
as to his psychic experiences must be judged most circum- 
spectly. 

No laugh can be loud enough, no sarcasm acidic enough, 
nor skepticism violent enough, to destroy a fact. 

An old story is told of a French astronomer saying "I 
have searched the heavens with my telescope and found no 
God." A deaf man says, " I have taken apart a piano and ap- 
plied every known chemical test; and have subjected each 
part to a powerful microscope, and found no music." Beauty, 
love, holiness, can be recognized only by those who are es-. 
thetical, loving, holy ; the pure in heart see God, no other can. 
After all, the chiefest qualification for a psychic investigator 
is spiritual development. Every faculty within us is the 
best judge of truth up to its level. A developed soul knows 
its way as does a migrating fish in the trackless deep. 

God is, and is in us— 
"Speak to Him, thou, for He hears, and Spirit with Spirit can 

meet: 
Closer is He than breathing, and nearer than hands and feet." 

May it not be that a developed soul puts forth antennae 
that bring it in contact with the spiritual forces of the universe 
and give it a logic that can not be gainsaid nor resisted — 
the logic of a personal experience? Wonder if Christ did not 
mean that when He promised His disciples a power of argu- 
ment that would be irresistible — the argument of a well- 
developed, responding soul. 

I climbed this truth as a tower — climbed it, and was not 
carried there — and was shown many of the kingdoms of the 
universe. 



44 CHIPS AND "LEFT-OVERS" 

Thadeus D. Wakeman says in Dr. Paul Carus's "Open 
Court": "After the death of Mr. Beecher there was no 
possible spirit, soul, or conscience of him extant to be bothered 
about the 'Widow's Mite' or anything else," hence he could 
not have returned. Is not this putting the cart before the 
horse? Why not first find out whether it is a fact that his 
spirit did return? If it did, then it is proved that he is a 
spirit. "Facts alone," says Richet, "are never absurd. 
They exist or they do not. If they exist, the study of the 
phenomena should precede the criticism of the theory." 

What man or angel has felt or done, another on that level 
can understand. 

"You are a crank"; when a man hurls an argument like 
that at me, what can I do? I can not gainsay nor resist it; 
I am simply squelched. 

Certain physiologists believe that the brain is a huge 
gland that secretes thought and feeling as the liver secretes 
bile; and this they think to prove in many ways, as from 
the fact that an injury to the brain often results in a weak- 
ening of the ability to think, and modifies feeling. A severe 
shock to the brain often causes complete cessation of thought 
and of all consciousness. The quality of the thought rises 
or falls as the blood is good or bad. A blood-clot pressing 
on the brain manifests itself in the functions of the brain ; that 
is, in our thought. A sick brain, a sick consciousness, a 
sick mind; no brain action, no consciousness. Not any- 
thing, say these physiologists, can be more clearly demon- 
strated than that thinking is the function of the brain. The 
argument is, we are to judge the inseparability of the agent 
from the machine, if the result of his work is moderated by 
changes in the machine. Let us test this by an example. 
Some years ago a good bit of interest was manifested in a 
New York entertainment-room in the fact that there was an 
automaton chess-player at this place, who could usually 
beat any player who would undertake to play the game 



CHIPS AND " LEFT-OVERS" 45 

with him. It seems that in the interior of this machine 
was a youthful chess prodigy. At one time the machine got 
out of order. The wires somehow got crossed, so that when 
the prodigy inside of the machine, who was wholly un- 
seen by the spectators, wanted to move one piece, really 
another piece was moved, and his game was in confusion. 
And it happened finally that the automaton became wholly 
disordered and was broken up. Now, it was true if the 
visible portion of this machine became disarranged, that 
the mind within it would be affected if judged by its prod- 
uct; and when finally it went to ruin, the mind ceased to 
be able to control the machine in any way whatever. Was 
this a demonstration that the mind that governed that 
machine was inseparably connected with the machine? 
Was it a fact that that mind ceased to exist because it 
ceased to be able to control the machine when the machine 
broke to pieces? No, the same player afterward became 
the champion chess-player of the United States; yet those 
who recognized him only through the automaton ceased 
seeing him. 

Spiritual wisdom does not come by way of the hearing 
ear or seeing eye, but by self-surrender, by the choice of 
virtue over passion and appetite. God says to every one of 
us : " When thou goest down to lift up others I go down to 
lift up thee." 

Is he a wise or an unwise Spiritualist who allows himself 
to be cheated now and then, rather than suspect every me- 
dium a rogue and believe with the Psalmist that " all men 
are liars"? Expectation tends to bring about the results 
expected. 

There is an indescribable something in the make-up of 
some people that wins other hearts and in others that repels ; 
so, for aught we know, it is with the inner world, and here 
may be a determining element why } some men are good psychic 
investigators and why others are not. 



46 CHIPS AND "LEFT-OVERS" 

The soul that will not think of things beyond the stars, 
sooner or later can not when he would. 

Scientists begin to understand that were efforts to pro- 
duce spontaneous generation successful, that would only 
prove that the physical conditions are present that make it 
possible for the life germs to crystallize a body about them. 
Light enters wherever conditions are favorable; it would not 
do to say therefore a window creates light. There is an 
infinite ocean of life. Give the conditions in which this 
life can organize a body, then it will do so. Each after its 
own kind; the higher the vibrations the higher the form 
of life, from the crystal and protozoan up to the highest hu- 
man ego or archangel. 

The note of reality is missing in a great part of the preach- 
ing of to-day. I asked a Spiritualist, "Why have you left 
your Church for Spiritualism?" and the answer was: "I 
got no reality there." The same answer I got from a Christian 
Scientist, also from a theosophist. Christ in His miracles 
gave reality — as the cure of the sick, that was a reality which 
the anxious mother or father could understand. "These 
signs will follow," said the Master. But you say the age of 
miracles is passed. Spiritualists say no; Christian Scien- 
tists say no; theosophists say no. Do not stop to discuss 
what is meant by miracles; you know what these objectors 
mean. The age of the manifestation of these psychic forces 
is not passed. Many of the churches in the neighborhood 
of the Christian Scientists' Marble Palace opposite the New 
York Central Park, and of Mrs. Pepper's church in Brooklyn, 
are not nearly as full as are these. Often on a rainy night 
you may see these latter churches filled to the doors. How 
large a multitude would have followed Christ had it not been 
for His feeding the hungry, and making the sick well, and 
"casting out devils"? I know; I know this is not the high- 
est motive, but it is the starting-motive to broader and 
higher thinking, a motive that Christ did not neglect. 



Ill 



COMMUNICATIONS PURPORTING TO COME FROM 
DR. RICHARD HODGSON 

"I am for all personal purposes convinced of the per- 
sistence of human existence beyond bodily death, and altho 
I am unable to justify that belief in full and complete manner, 
yet it is a belief which has been produced by scientific evi- 
dence — that is, it is based upon facts and experience." 

Sir Oliver Lodge. 



Has any communication been received from Dr. 
Hodgson since his death? 

Prof. James H. Hyslop thinks Yes, 

He assures us that since the Doctor's death he 
has received communications which were so clear 
and evidential as to lead him to believe that the 
speaker was his old friend and coworker. 

What were these communications? That is a 
matter of secondary importance. 

The matter of primary importance — and it is 
profoundly important and interesting — is that the 
communications were of a nature, and given under 
such test conditions, that they fully convinced 



48 HYSLOP'S QUALIFICATIONS 

Professor Hyslop of the identity of the spirit speaker. 
The Professor is not a novice at these investigations ; 
he is well versed in modern psychology; intimately 
acquainted with all the latest facts and with the 
explanatory theories as the subliminal or subjective 
mind, secondary personalities, telepathy, the "con- 
sciousness of circles " — Dr. J. Maxwell's novel theory; 
is as far removed from sentimentality as is one pole 
from the other; with a temperamental bent toward 
scientific materialism — it is a significant fact that 
both he and Dr. Hodgson entered upon their psychic 
investigations believing that when man dies, his 
personality ends, that he — all of him — "is tumbled 
into the bowels of the earth, is digested and assim- 
ilated, becoming possibly part of some other living 
organization, but will never know again his former 
self;" — is cool-headed, a trained scientist, a close 
observer, and is a keen logical thinker, having been, 
until ill-health compelled him to resign, Professor 
of logic in Columbia University. 

Besides Professor Hyslop was probably more 
intimately acquainted than any other man on earth 
with the mental and spiritual idiosyncrasies of Dr. 
Hodgson, a fact that should add great weight to his 
startling testimony. Should it not give the most 
skeptical of us pause, when such a one says to us, 
that he is convinced that he has had repeated intelli- 



REPELLENT TO NEW TRUTHS 49 

gent communications from Dr. Hodgson since his 
death? 

It would indeed be strange if there is a sane man 
on earth who is not stirred at the thought of a possible 
scientific demonstration of the belief that a man 
who dies lives again; I say scientific demonstration. 
Man's repellent attitude to new truths, even those 
of vital importance to himself, is one of the curious 
things of history. 

" The truths — those surprizing, amazing, unforeseen truths — 
which our descendants will discover, are even now all around 
about, staring us in the eyes, so to speak, and yet we see 
them not. But it is not enough to say we see them not; 
we do not wish to see them." 1 

What fools we mortals be! 

This fact should also carry weight: these "com- 
munications from Dr. Hodgson" came through Mrs. 
Piper when she was in a deep trance, for there remain 
no grounds for reasonable doubt that when so-called 
communications come through her, Mrs. Piper is 
wholly unconscious. For many years this fact had 
been tested by every method known to medical science, 
by such experts as Dr. Hodgson, Professor Hyslop, 
and with not a little assistance from Prof. William 
James of Harvard, the most famous of American 

3 Prof. Charles Richet: Annals of Psychical Research, Jan., 
1905, pp. 26-27. 
4 



50 KEENEST OF PSYCHIC DETECTIVES 

psychologists, and others. Her utter unconscious- 
ness when in trance was proven by touching her eye- 
balls and running a needle under her finger-nails 
and through her tongue, and by putting red pepper 
in her nostrils and throat — all these seemingly cruel 
tests were made without yielding any evidence of the 
slightest physical reaction. And then, in addition, 
for many months her mail was watched, herself 
shadowed by detectives, she not being permitted 
even to have conversation with any one except in 
the presence of representatives of the Society, — 
this watch was under the direction of Dr. Hodgson, 
whom Sir William Crookes pronounced, before the 
Royal Society, as the keenest psychic detective 
that probably the world has ever seen. 

Dr. Hodgson had schooled himself in physical 
jugglery and mental magic, having studied the art 
both in India and in the Western world. And withal 
he had what may be justly described as a detective's 
instinct for fraud along psychic lines, as is strikingly 
revealed in the narration of his exposure of Madame 
Blavatsky. He knew modern psychology. He had 
"an eye that saw through the motives of men" — 
also "eyes and ears in his mind," as was said of 
blind Huber who saw more of bees than any man 
with his physical eyes, even tho aided by the micro- 
scope, ever before had seen. As has been said of 



HODGSON'S IDENTIFICATION 51 

another, Hodgson could see and hear with his eyes 
and hear and see with his ears. 

Thus equipped, Dr. Hodgson had absolute charge 
of the movements of Mrs. Piper for twenty years, 
and subjected her to every test that he could con- 
ceive of, and at the expiration of this score of years 
he died, a year ago, with perfect faith in her integrity. 

And now, after all these years of complete control 
of her "sittings/' this medium's honesty is fully 
accepted by those who, with Dr. Hodgson, were the 
American leaders of the Society for Psychical Re- 
search, and scarcely less absolutely by the European 
leaders of the same society. However, Professor 
Hyslop tells us that tho he regards her as wholly 
trustworthy, yet his conclusions in favor of the spirit 
hypothesis do not depend in the slightest upon her 
honesty, as his experiments with her are of such a 
nature that as far as the phenomena are concerned 
it does not signify in the slightest whether she is 
honest or dishonest. This also was true with Dr. 
Hodgson's experiments. 

The plan adopted by what claims to be Dr. Hodg- 
son's ghost, to identify himself was simply to remind 
Professor Hyslop of some facts that were known 
only to these two men, as: 

1. Tests which Professor Hyslop made before 
Dr. Hodgson's death through a medium who is the 



52 TRIVIAL THINGS 

wife of a Congregational minister in New England, 
concerning whose supernormal powers he and Dr. 
Hodgson had differed, jln these spirit communications 
through Mrs. Piper Dr. Hodgson told Professor 
Hyslop that since his death he had visited this 
medium and "I found things better than I thought. " 

2. He reminded Professor Hyslop of a certain 
colored- water test that Hyslop had applied in testing 
a class of phenomena some 500 miles distant from 
Boston, and concerning which tests nothing had been 
mentioned in Mrs. Piper's presence prior to this 
spirit communication. 

3. He reminded Professor Hyslop of a discussion 
that they had had over cutting down the manuscript 
of one of Hyslop's books several years ago. 

These and other communications were of an evi- 
dential test character. 

In making these communications there was, accord- 
ing to Professor Hyslop, a display of a number of 
mental idiosyncrasies which were peculiarly charac- 
teristic of Dr. Hodgson. 

True enough, many of the things recalled to Pro- 
fessor Hyslop's memory are trivial, not the kind of 
things that the average mind is apt to suppose a 
spirit coming across the " great divide " would bother 
to tell us about. But it must be borne in mind that 



FACTS COMPEL RECOGNITION 53 

the importance or triviality of the communication 
is not the vital point, but the fact of any communi- 
cation from a spirit intelligence is inexpressibly 
important. 

Facts will not permit us to waive them aside be- 
cause they seem to us to be trivial. Sooner or later 
they, if they be facts, will compel recognition, that 
is their way; for a series of facts is as unyielding as 
a table of logarithms, and it is the business of science 
to account for them ; however trivial they may seem 
to be. Sir Oliver Lodge, in a late paper before the 
Society for Psychical Research in London, talked 
sanely of the duty of scientists touching such matters. 
He insisted 1 "that psychic phenomena should be 
thoroughly investigated on their merits, apart from 
all preconception. ... In studying them no phe- 
nomenon or instrument was too trivial; if the 
movement of an untouched object was a fact, and 
one hitherto unknown to science, it did not matter 
how trivial was the object moved. If a communica- 
tion showed signs of hypernormal intelligence or 
clairvoyance, it mattered not how trifling was the 
event perceived." 

But, after all, is it not true that it is by trivial 
things often we best identify old acquaintances? 
An important incident in their lives is apt to be 

1 Light, London, December 16, 1905. 



54 CONCLUSIVE TRIVIALITY 

known to a large number of people, and may have 
got into print, or otherwise noised abroad; hence 
to be told about it is of little evidential value as to 
the identity of the speaker. Dr. Hodgson, again 
and again, when in the flesh, declared that spirits 
would best prove their identity by exactly the 
methods this intelligence here adopts. The follow- 
ing two incidents will illustrate the point: 

The wife of Judge A. H. Dailey, of Brooklyn, is a 
sensitive. One of her controls is a man who claims 
to have been a sea-captain, when on earth, declaring 
that he passed out of life during the Civil War. To 
identify himself he described his early home in a 
small town in Massachusetts where, he said, his 
mother's grave could be seen in the old graveyard, 
the tombstone having on it her name, which name 
he gave to Judge Dailey. The Judge determined to 
visit the town, a town which neither he nor his wife 
had ever previously visited, nor had they ever heard 
of this sea-captain or of any members of his family, 
knew nothing in fact about him. He and his wife 
went to the town, found the gravestone in the old 
graveyard, and the name inscribed as told by the 
spirit. This was a trivial fact, but to Judge Dailey 
it was conclusive. * 

It is difficult to see how telepathy or mind-reading 

111 The Widow's Mite," p. 259. 



PROOF OF IDENTITY 55 

or any theory of secondary personality could account 
for a fact of this sort ; while coincidence and fraud are 
wholly debarred. 

A clergyman friend of mine who is very skeptical 
as to Spiritualism told me that on one occasion he, 
unannounced and without any previous plan, visited 
a seance in Boston where he is sure that he was 
wholly unknown. In the circle a woman, not the 
medium, suddenly spoke to him, saying, "Pardon 
me, but I see a man in military uniform standing 
by your side, and he asks that I tell you 'Willie 
Cullum ' is here. " The clergyman telling the story 
said, "I tried to appear indifferent and replied to 
the woman, 'Well, what has William Cullum to say 
to me?' She replied, 'He says he is not William 
but Willie Cullum, and that he simply wishes you 
to know that he is here.' " My friend was dum- 
founded, for he says that in his college days, far 
distant from Boston, a most intimate friend of his 
was a Willie Cullum. This friend went to war and 
was killed. "We," continued the clergyman, "were 
so intimate that he would have been shocked if I 
had called him William." That little point about 
the name was trivial, yet are we not justified in giving 
it weight? 

Another case in point: 

Mrs. Pepper at one time announced that the spirit 



56 WELL-SELECTED INCIDENT 

of a woman was present who gave her name as 
"Martha," and said that she was my mother, and 
that she had a grandchild with her, whose name was 
"Chester." I replied, "If the spirit is really my 
mother can she not identify herself to me?" The 
reply was instantaneous, "Isaac, do you remember 
that needle?" Two score years ago when I was a 
lad at home in Springfield, Ohio, my mother, stepping 
from a chair, stept on a needle that was standing 
upright in the carpet. It ran through her slipper 
into her foot. She called me from an adjoining room. 
I was unable to extract the needle until I secured a 
pair of pincers from a neighboring shoe-shop. Great 
suffering and paralysis followed, ending in death 
in about ten days. A needle is a little thing, but 
this incident was well selected to prove identity, 
with the exception that the fact was in my own mind. 
My brother "B. F." some thirty years ago buried 
a baby child in the West, by the name of "Chester." 
If I had ever known this fact, it had wholly passed 
from memory. 

At the more important sittings with Mrs. Piper, 
the plan long followed is to have written down 
stenographically everything that is said and done, 
however trivial it may seem — every word is recorded, 
blunders and all. I have seen the full stenographic 
reports of the sittings of Professor Hyslop at which 



CURIOUS THEORY 57 

these Hodgson communications were given. That 
the reader may get an idea of their nature I here 
give several extracts verbatim — other than those 
to which I have referred above. The reader should 
keep in mind the facts that Mrs. Piper in these 
seances is in deep trance. Her hand automatically 
writes the message, and the sitter addresses the hand. 
It also should be remembered that the theory of 
Professor Hyslop "is — it was also Dr. Hodgson's 
theory — that the spirit, in order to communicate, 
quite likely himself enters into a somewhat abnormal 
condition akin, it may be, to trance or hypnosis as 
we understand the conditions on this side of the grave. 
Hence the breaks and forgetfulness, and at times 
confusion manifested in the communications. Curi- 
ously, these intelligences inform us that they, on 
their side also, have a psychic problem, and that 
skepticism rules there as here as to reported commu- 
nications through mediums from relatives and friends 
left behind — and, still more curious, this skepticism 
is most strongly entrenched among the scientific 
and the dogmatically religious on the spirit side. 

The reader of these communications will be apt 
to smile because these Hodgson talks are so natural, 
that is, human — they will appear suspiciously human 
to many. But, after all, why not human and nat- 



58 CRITICAL CERTAINLY 

ural? What is there in death to change the heart, 
the mind, the spirit — character — the ego, the me? 
When we come to think of it, what reason have we 
for believing that the other world is not lifelike, 
human? Practically the same there as here, plus 
we know not what. The same infinite intelligence 
governs on both sides; the universe is a uni- verse. 

We should be critical certainly, and with Demos- 
thenes insist that every argument be based upon an 
incontrovertible fact, but we must stick close to 
common sense. Some people, for fear of being 
superstitious, are of all men at times most super- 
stitious. I have laughed at times quietly — and of 
course respectfully — at these learned agnostics, phi- 
losophers, scientists, who are superstitiously afraid 
of superstition! Superstition, broadly speaking, is 
to believe something about the unseen for which 
we have no basis in reason. As already remarked, 
there is a positive superstition, and there is a nega- 
tive superstition; the latter may be altogether as 
irrational as the former. 

EXTRACTS FROM THE STENOGRAPHIC REPORTS OF 
COMMUNICATIONS PURPORTING TO COME FROM DR. 
HODGSON THROUGH MRS. PIPER. 

The uncredited remarks enclosed in brackets ap- 
pear in the stenographic notes ; those credited to Hy . 



COMMUNICATIONS DIFFICULT 59 

are comments since made by Professor Hyslop ; and 
those credited to F. are my own. 

Hodgson: I am delighted to greet you here. 

Hyslop: Well, I can hardly say that I am glad to greet 
you in this way. You remember we used to laugh about 
my going first. [F: Hyslop was long threatened with tuber- 
culosis and his life was almost despaired of.] 

H : Indeed I do, but I got ahead of you and I am delighted 
to be the first one to come. It is all so much better than I 
anticipated. God help you to understand and help me in 
helping the work [word not clear or certain.] 

[Excitement in the writing hand of the medium.] 

H : I am so overcome with delight I can hardly say what I 
wish. I hope you will not give up the ghost. [Not read at 
time.] [F: Reference probably to Hyslop' s illness.] 

Stick to it Hyslop and I will — Ghoast — stick to it Hyslop. 
I see you so clearly. I shall not stop to talk rubbish but 
let us at facts [difficulty reading] — talk rubbish, let us get 
down to facts. . . . 

I have met your good father and wife whom I knew well. 

H: This is the happiest moment of — [hand doubled back 
and cramped badly] — pardon me — [still cramped] — coming 
over here. I mean in meeting you again. 

This seeming difficulty in getting control of a 
medium and keeping it is often noticeable in the 
seance-room, indicating that there are huge difficulties 
that these intelligences — whoever they are — encounter 
in communicating. 

Hy: All right, Hodgson, I feel that it would have been 
better for you to lead on this side. 

H: Perhaps, but I am satisfied. Do you remember how 
I said to you I sometimes longed to get over here? 



60 GOT NAMES CONFUSED 

I did often. I longed to see this beautiful country if I 
may so express it. [Hy: " CORRECT."] 

H: One thing more I recall. Do you remember telling 
me about your aunt Eliza obstinacy ['obstinacy' not read 
at first] in giving you help. Your aunt Eliza Obstin — 
obstinacy — O B S T [writing sheet changed] OBSTancy 
in giving you help. 

Hy; Well you have the idea correct, but the name is not 
right. 

H : No doubt I have got the names confused. I have met 
several of your relatives here for which I am very pleased. 
God keep you. 

[Hy: Correct about my aunt, tho incorrect as to name — 
was Aunt Nannie instead of Aunt Eliza.] 

H: I have been trying since I came over to find some 
student reliable and truthful through whom I could com- 
municate. I shall hope to put you on track of some one soon. 

Hy: Good, good. Do. 

[Hy : Refers to hypnotic experiment in my report. Hodg- 
son liked it.] 

H: ... It is horribly stuffy here. 

The testimony from many seance-rooms is that 
spirits have bodies of which their physical, earthly 
forms were the outer, coarser forms, and that they 
in this new life do need something akin to breathing, 
and that when they enter earthly conditions they 
experience a difficulty of breath like that we ex- 
perience in going into a place of foul smells. So 
if these spirits are to be believed we will not get 
free from taking care of bodies by dying. 

H : Do you remember what I said about praying for 
help? 



HODGSON'S EXHORTATION TO PRAY 61 

Hy: I remember you spoke about it, but I do not recall 
the exact time or statement. 

H: I told you if you prayed for help I believed it would 
be given you. Answer. 

Hy: Very well. I have tried that over and over again. 

[Hy: Correct.] 

When it is remembered that both Hyslop and 
Hodgson had been materialists after the scien- 
tific variety, and were brought to a belief in a 
reality of a spiritual universe through spirit com- 
munications, we have in this exhortation to prayer 
and assent, a significant fact for the churches to 
ponder. Prayer implies faith in the All Creator. 
Can the church afford to overlook anything that 
brings materialists to their knees in this sadly ma- 
terialistic age? Just how will my Seventh Day Adven- 
tist critics and other good church people, who have 
been writing me warning letters, reconcile exhorta- 
tions of this sort with their theory of " evil spirits " 
as the source of all spirit communications? Yes, 
true, the devil is very sly, but then if it is a fact that 
he trembles when he sees the weakest saint on his 
knees, he surely takes a mighty big risk in urging a 
man like Hyslop to pray! Henry Kimball — the 
founder of The Church Union, which afterward 
became The Christian Union and is now The Outlook — 
used to tell me with great impressiveness that his 
experience and observation proved " the devil an 



62 IS THE DEVIL AN ASS 

ass." If the devil is behind these exhortations to 
prayer I think Kimball was right, or perhaps this 
familiar couplet may give the hint : 

"The devil sick, the devil a monk would be, 
The devil well, the devil a monk was be." 

Possibly Satan at times like us wee mortals thinks 
it now and then safest to cast an anchor to wind- 
ward. 

H: It will. I wonder if you recall the advice I gave you 
and what I said I would do if I should come first. . . . 

Hy: I do not remember exactly. 

H: Remember that I told Myers that we would talk 
nigger talk — Myers — talk nigger talk. 

Hy: No, you must have told that to some one else. 

H: Ah, yes, James. I remember it was Will James. 
He will U. D. [understand.] 

Prof. William James has since recalled this incident. 
It seems that a spirit's memory when he is in con- 
dition for communicating may be treacherous, and 
hence it may often be as dangerous — I repeat what 
is said on a previous page — to follow blindly a spirit's 
direction as that given by a fellow in the flesh. It 
seems reasonable to believe that infinite intelligence 
never intended us to be free from the responsibility 
of exercising and using to the utmost the faculties 
which we have. But before following our conclu- 
sions it may be reasonable to hear what friends out of 
the flesh have to say as well as friends in the flesh. . . . 



HODGSON'S DEATH EXPERIENCE 63 

H: I wonder if you realize now anything about the diffi- 
culties of communication and how the harmonius elements 
entered into it — them. 

Hy: No, I know nothing about it. But you know how 
we scientific people have to guess at it in order to make the 
other fellows listen. 

H : I do 'perfectly. 

Our conceptions of the spirit- world are no doubt 
often childishly absurd. 

H : I can not forget anything if you give me time to recall. 
You must have great patience with me as I am not what I 
hope to be later. 

Hy: All right, Hodgson. Do you find that we conjec- 
tured the difficulties fairly well? 

H: We did surprizingly well. I was surprized enough — 
enough — enough. Is my writing more difficult than it 
used to be? 

The reader should recall Professor Hyslop's sug- 
gestion that this struggle to remember and that the 
mistakes that are often made by these " spirits " indi- 
cate that they, in order to commune, have to pass into 
an abnormal state something like hypnosis on earth. 
Dr. Hodgson in these communications said little 
about his death experiences, but that little is curious. 

H: It is delightful to go through the cool ['cool' not read 
at first] ethereal atmosphere, cool — cool, COO L — into this 
life and shake [read as ' take'] off the — Shake off the S H a k e 
— Shake off mortal body. Hyslop, speak. 

Often in talking with the intelligences in the seance- 
room, I am urged to reply, as, I am told, this helps 



64 FINE PROOF 

the spirit to fix his attention and communicate. 
It is one of the many odd phases of these phenomena 
and often makes one think that an effort is being 
made to divert attention, and to gain the assistance 
of suggestion. 

H: In leaving the body the shock to the spirit knocks 
everything out of one's thoughts for a while, but if he has 
any desire at all to prove his identity he can in time collect 
enough to — collect — enough evidence to prove convincingly 
his identity — convincingly — convincingly. . . . 

H: It is so suffocating to enter here. I can appreciate 
their difficulties better than ever before. 

Evidently reference is here to the difficulties which 
" spirits " encounter in efforts totcon verse through. Mrs. 
Piper and other mediums. 

H: Do you remember the difficulties we had in regard to 
our hypothesis on the spiritistic theory? 

Hy: I remember that clearly enough. 

H: I feel that you feel that [my] coming over is going to 
handicap you much. This is not so. 

Hy: All right, I hope it will not. 

H: I shall do my utmost in helping you on with the most 
important [important not read at first] work in your world — 
important — Do you remember telling me about some ob- 
jections your brother made because these good friends told 
about him? 

Hy: Yes. I remember that well indeed. 

[Hy: Very fine incident, known to no one but Hodgson 
and myself.] 

These quotations will give the reader a fair idea 
of this remarkable series of communications. When 



IS FUTURE LIFE PROVEN 65 

published in full by Professor Hyslop or other per- 
son they will prove of still greater interest — these 
communications with a still later series Dr. Hyslop 
has had. If these communications were really from 
Dr. Hodgson then indeed — 

" There is no death, what seems so is transition. 
This life of mortal breath, 
Is but a suburb of the life Elysian, 
Whose portals we call death." 

If Professor Hyslop is right in his judgment con- 
cerning these communications then we are in the 
presence of the most stupendous achievement ever 
wrought by science — a scientific demonstration of a 
future life. 



2 

At two o'clock one morning last January my 
telephone awoke me. 

"This is the New York Herald. The American 
is just out with a 'spread' announcement that you 
through Mrs. May S. Pepper have seen Dr. Hodgson, 
and had an extended interview with him. If this 
is true the Herald would be pleased to have you 
give it the facts." 

"There is not a word of truth in it." 

The report in the American was a fabrication 
5 



66 QUEER NEWSPAPER CORRECTION 

from beginning to end, and tho the denial started 
within an hour after the lie got agoing, the lie is 
still making the rounds of the earth, and like the 
Faraday electric coil it seems to get additional force' 
with every repeated circuit. 

It is, however, but just to say that upon the after- 
noon of the same day, the Editor of the American 
called me up on the phone and wished to know if 
the denial reported as from me in the various papers 
was authentic. 

I replied, "It is; there is not a word of truth in the 
story as told in your morning edition — not a word — 
your reporter had not even an interview with me 
on the subject." 

" We are sorry ; we will at once dismiss the reporter 
from our service, for we will not knowingly retain a 
liar on our force." 

"Good!" 

That reporter was promptly dismissed, but the 
paper never denied his report. 

However, a short time after this incident Judge 
Abram H. Dailey, of Brooklyn, and I called at the 
home of Mrs. Pepper, and we had the following 
seance — I write with the notes I made at the time 
as my basis. 

As soon as Mrs. Pepper went into the apparent 
trance condition it was announced by her " familiar " 



GHOST TROUBLED WITH WEAKNESS 67 

that there was a group of spirits present who were 
strangers to her. One gives the name "Imperator" 
and another is a little fellow that they call "French 
Doctor"; and another gives the name of "Oxion"; 
and this last one says that he will take my place — 
I think he means to talk through the medium. 
They are bringing with them a fine-looking man who 
seems not to have been long on this side, as he 
appears "very weak." 

Weakness is so identified in our thoughts with this 
earth and with the body, that this suggestion of a 
ghost thus troubled is apt to awaken in us skepticism 
to the risible point, and yet is it wholly unreasonable? 
We are born into this world as babes, the embodi- 
ment of helplessness. If infinite wisdom thought it 
wise to permit this with one of our births can we be 
altogether sure that He will not permit this with 
another? 

Then Mrs. Pepper seemed to enter into a complete 
trance state, much more complete than in her usual 
sittings with me. We made no physical tests to 
prove the reality of the trance. The appearances 
indicated a "control" unused to the methods. It 
was fully eight minutes before there was any speaking 
through the medium. Just prior to the speaking, 
the right hand of the medium indicated a desire to 
write. I put in the hand a pencil and then it wrote 



68 "STAINTON MOSES" 

on a page of my memorandum book "Stainton" in 
large letters, and then again "Stainton Moses." 
Finally, very slowly at first, and then more rapidly, 
the medium spoke in a strange voice as follows: 

" I come not to speak for myself this evening through this 
medium who is strange to me, and it is a strange thing for 
me to attempt to speak through a medium. Imperator 
who is here, helps me. We have come to bring one who has 
given a long time to psychic matters, and he desires to let it 
be known that he is present and that spirit communication 
is a fact. This spirit is Dr. Hodgson. He is not strong 
enough to use the medium himself. He wishes me to say 
that he finds that he conducted experiments altogether too 
much on the physical plane, and hence developed insuffi- 
ciently the higher spiritual powers, which enable one to con- 
trol forces in the spirit world and to understand quickly 
the laws that govern here. When the Doctor came over to 
our side, many of us gathered together to help him, but we 
found that he was attuned to earth vibrations and it was 
difficult to wake him. I found, in order to communicate, 
that it was necessary for me to reach a medium who was 
keyed to my vibrations. Valuable as scientific facts of the 
material world are, they are not nearly so valuable as those 
that have to do with the spiritual man and with the unfolding 
of the spiritual powers of man. I myself left a legacy for 
the uplifting of mankind, and I found when I reached this 
side a place among an exalted company of spirits. 

"This thought we all wish to impress upon you and upon 
the friends on earth, that there is a difference between the 
entrance into the spirit world of those who seek for spiritual 
unfolding and those who simply seek for scientific knowledge. 
Dr. Hodgson says that I shall tell you that it was a great 
error that he kept himself so largely attuned to material life 
and material things. You will understand he means that he 
did not move in the realm of the higher or spiritual. He 



HODGSON'S EXPLANATION 69 

did not view these psychic matters from the standpoint that 
I did. He sought to base everything mainly on material 
facts and did not seek to interpret anything wholly as 
spiritual. One that comes over as he came over, is trans- 
planted from one sphere of life into another like a babe just 
born. He has been besieged since he is here with messages 
started from your side. All manner of questions are being 
carried to him by messengers. This is all in vain; he can not 
answer. He repeats that I shall tell you he realizes now that 
he sa,w only one side of this great question, and that the 
lesser important. 

"He says that I should convey to you this message as a 
test of his identity : In a letter he wrote to you, he intimated 
that you were going too fast in your investigations through 
this medium, and that he wrote you to go slow. He thought 
your way of investigation was not scientific because you took 
too much the spiritual view of things. Now he says that 
this attitude is the nearer right. [After a little while of 
silence.] You have a letter here addrest to him. [I 
handed the medium a sealed letter in which there was a 
letter addrest on the inside to Richard Hodgson, on the 
envelop the letter was addrest to "It"; in the letter I 
wrote: Who would you desire for your successor?] In this 
letter you ask who Dr. Hodgson would have for his successor. 
He says it should be a man who puts no less stress on the 
scientific side of investigation, but much more stress on the 
spiritual side than he did. 

" It will be impossible for us to hold ourselves and control 
the medium longer. Good-night. We will come again 
some future day." 

All through this sitting the gas light was turned 
on full. After the medium's regular "control" 
again took possession I asked her to tell me just how 
the letter inside the envelop was addrest. She 
finally gave it to me correctly — " Richard Hodgson." 



70 MORE EVIDENCE OF IDENTITY 

The test for identification mentioned in the com- 
munication seems to refer to a letter I received from 
Dr. Hodgson April 1, 1905, in which he spoke derog- 
atorily of Mrs. Pepper's mediumship and of the dan- 
ger of deception, closing this part of the letter with 
these words : 

"I believe that you have done an enormous amount of 
valuable work, especially in the open stand that you have 
taken for investigation, and for arousing the interest of a 
wider public, and it would be disastrous if you should commit 
yourself to the acceptance as supernormal, of manifesta- 
tions which eventually prove to be due to fraud. I con- 
gratulate you most heartily on your help and I beg you to 
go cautiously as regards accepting any particular person's 
manifestations as genuine." 

Observe these two points: 

1. As this letter spoke against Mrs. Pepper I, of 
course, did not intimate to her or her friends that Dr. 
Hodgson had so written to me, putting me on my 
guard against her. 

2. The reminder of this warning against Mrs. 
Pepper purports to come to me through the person 
who wrote the warning and it comes through the very 
medium against ivhom he warned. A curious fact; 
but, of course, as Dr. Hodgson was wont to say, 
"not of much evidential value." 

"Oxion," spoken of in the above communication, 
was the pseudonym of Rev. Stainton Moses, who in 



SECONDARY PERSONALITY 71 

the later years of his life was the editor of Life, 
London; "Imperator" and the little "French Doc- 
tor " are among the spirit " controls " of Mrs. Pepper, 
and were often referred to in the Piper reports pub- 
lished from time to time by Dr. Hodgson while living. 



3 

INTERESTING BUT SCARCELY EVIDENTIAL 

The most common explanation of "spirit com- 
munication/ 7 next to fraud on the one hand and 
spirits on the other, is the hypothesis of the second- 
ary personality, or the "other self" of the medium. 
Often when the medium is in a hypnotic or trance 
condition a group or groups of latent brain cells 
seem to be quickened, and what appears to be 
another personality takes control and writes and 
talks through the medium and claims to be a foreign 
intelligence. 

The medium may be wholly honest and yet this 
"other personality " be none other than the medium's 
self. Suggestion is a potent element in this phase 
of phenomena. Suggest to the intelligence that 
you wish to speak to Colonel Ingersoll, or Sam 
Patch, or your own father, and as likely as not the 



72 DANGER OF DECEPTION 

medium's countenance and voice will take on the 
characteristics of the person suggested — or as nearly 
so as the medium's notions of the person are correct 
and his physical organization will permit. 

In this we see exemplified the subjective-mind 
theory of Dr. Thomas Jay Hudson and the sub- 
liminal-mind theory of Frederic Myers; we also see 
illustrated the power of hypnosis and of suggestion. 

I describe somewhat fully the following inci- 
dent because it illustrates, if I do not greatly mis- 
judge it, much of what passes for spirit communica- 
tion but which has its source either in the conscious 
or unconscious self of the medium; no foreign or 
spirit intelligence has anything to do with it. There 
is not a feature in this whole Boston incident that 
requires the presence of a foreign spirit to explain; 
nor is there anything in the "talks" that suggest to 
me the personality of Dr. Hodgson. 

Let no reader think that I charge the Rev. Mr. 
Wiggin as guilty of fraud. I was not present at 
these seances, nor have I ever met the man. All 
I claim is that neither the theory of fraud nor that 
of " spirits " is necessary to explain these communica- 
tions. I think that at this stage of psychic inves- 
tigation we are wholly justified in accepting the 
spirit hypothesis only when all other explanations 
fail. 



REV. MR. WIGGIN'S CLAIM 73 

There is another good reason for giving so much 
space to this incident: The "talks" present quite 
clearly certain aspects of the laws of communica- 
tion that are generally accepted as explanatory by 
spiritualists. 

But let us now to the incident. 

Rev. Mr. Wiggin, a noted platform medium, in 
his church in Boston on Sunday, January 28, 1906, 
announced — or was it, as he claims, the spirit con- 
trol through him that made the announcement? — 
that Dr. Hodgson was present, and desired to speak. 
Assuming control of the medium, this spirit, we are 
told, delivered a talk of some length. The follow- 
ing is a portion of the address, which I quote from 
the stenographer's official report, kindly sent to me : 

" Mr. Chairman and Friends here assembled : 

"I am more than grateful for the opportunity offered me 
at this time to come to speak for myself thus a few words, 
not alone to you but to the world. 

" For quite a number of years I earnestly sought for the 
truth, I tried in every possible way to account for certain 
phenomena connected with spiritualism upon some other 
hypothesis than that assumed as correct by spiritualists. 
I was finally, by virtue of my most careful observation and 
investigation, forced to the conclusion that communication 
by the spirits of the so-called dead alone could account for 
the genuine phenomena of modern spiritualism. 

"It has been but a short time — it seems to me but as yes- 
terday — since I dropt earthly conditions. 

" I do not come here to-night to gratify any idle curiosity ; 



74 HODGSON'S SPECIAL MESSAGE 

I come to inform you that I have found it to be true that 
the individual consciousness of man survives the change called 
death. 

"I come to tell you that heaven is reached by every one 
some time, but always and only by individual effort. 

"I come to tell you that I am supremely happy to-night, 
at the full realization of the truth of the continuity of life 
and of the fact of spirit return. 

"I come to tell you and those who were my past earth- 
life associates, that telepathy will not explain these pheno- 
mena. 

"I come to tell you that subconsciousness, while a fact, 
is not a sufficient hypothesis to explain these phenomena. 

"I do not expect by coming back to convince the world 
of this great truth of spirit return — a large majority of the 
people are not yet mentally prepared to receive it — but I 
do expect to convince some. 

" I have a message which now I wish to deliver, and which 
I entreat your official stenographer to take down, and to send 
it to my old friend in New York, Dr. I. K. Funk. This 
message which I send will convince him that I who send it 
am Dr. Richard Hodgson. If he cares to reveal to the world 
the truth of the statement, it will have the effect of con- 
vincing many others. 

"Tell him, that since coming to the world of spirits, I 
have met a beautiful spiritual woman, who informs me 
that she was his wife on earth. I, as he knows, did not 
possess knowledge in the earth-life, nor was I in a position 
myself to obtain the knowledge, as to the cause of this 
woman passing out of the physical body. Desiring some 
statement, which could be sent by me to him (as well as to 
others), of a nature that would convince him of my identity, 
I made inquiry of her as to the cause of her death, thinking 
perhaps that it might be of a nature that would be, when 
stated to him, convincing. I think it is. 

"You tell him that his wife here in spirit says that if she 
had never climbed up to adjust the fixtures at the top of the 
window in their house, she would have retained still, probably, 



A GRAVE ERROR 75 

her expression in bodily form. For, she fell, injuring her foot 
which resulted in her death. 

"Now I know that there is not a person in this audience 
who is familiar with this fact; until coming to the spirit 
world, I had no knowledge of it. Dr. Funk alone is prac- 
tically the only person in the earth-life who knows the exact 
facts. My knowledge of the fact will help to convince him 
of my identity." 



The message personal to me in the above was, of 
course, intended to be of evidential value, and it 
proved to be sufficiently sensational to lead the 
reporters of several papers to telegraph it to New 
York, and my telephone was kept busy for several 
hours with questions as to the truth of the incident 
reported in the message. 

The message unfortunately contains a very grave 
error. My wife did not die because of an " accident," 
but, some thirty-five years ago, died of peritonitis in 
childbirth; but my mother, over two score years ago 
in Ohio, died exactly in the way described in the 
message except that she stept down from a chair, 
on a needle which resulted in her death — she did not 
fall. Quite naturally the funny men of the press 
grew merry over this slip of the spirit. 

In thanking the Boston medium for his courtesy 
in sending me an "official copy" of the communica- 
tion, I called his attention to the error and also 
called attention to the fact, that about a year prior 



76 UNFORTUNATE COINCIDENCE 

Mrs. Pepper at a public meeting in Brooklyn an- 
nounced that my mother's spirit was present, and 
for identification told how she had died by stepping 
down from a chair on a needle. This communication 
was published in at least one New York paper at 
the time. It is not impossible that Mr. Wiggin 
had read or heard of this fact and that it was at 
the time of the Hodgson communication part of his 
mental furniture. This possibility greatly lessened 
the evidential value of the communication through 
the Boston clergyman. 

The following are extracts from the reply which the 
clergyman sent to me several weeks later : 



"No one regrets more than I, that the Dr. Hodgson mes- 
sage should have been made a matter of so much public 
comment 

"I am a graduate of a university, a careful and faithful 
student, and I am bound to credit myself with being above 
the kind of speech which too frequently obtains from the 
spiritualistic platform. ... I am certain that I have a 
standing for respectability and integrity born of proper 
regard to family, church, and the general community. . . . 
I declare to you that the circumstances of the way your 
good mother passed to the higher life had never been read 
by me in any form of newspaper or other publication what- 
soever, neither had I received any information, directly or 
indirectly, at any time concerning the matter. It occurs 
to me that the circumstance of a death in your family was 
stated in the Hodgson message approximately correct and 
why it should have been assigned to your wife in spirit, I, 



THE MEDIUM'S INSISTENCE 77 

personally, do not at this time attempt to explain, notwith- 
standing I entertain theories with reference to the subject. 



"I am frequently clairvoyant, especially in the early 
part of the day, and I do know, unless all my senses are 
capable of deceiving me, that I have twice seen the apparition 
of Dr. Hodgson. I am also clairaudient at times, and upon 
one of these occasions I distinctly and in every sense by a 
purely objective appreciation heard him say: — 

" ' I have with much difficulty clothed myself with respect 
to all physical characteristics as accurately as possible. 
You knew me while in the body, do you not recognize me 
now?' I replied: 'Yes, it is Dr. Hodgson.' To which 
he replied: 'Thank you, that helps and encourages me,' 
and the apparition was in a moment gone. 

"When returning from the trance state, I am not com- 
petent to bear testimony with reference to the personality 
of the intelligence that may have controlled me, but some- 
how both the individuality of the spirit and what has been 
said, is registered in my mind at least in a degree, and what- 
ever view may be entertained by others, I am held to the 
faith that it was Dr. Hodgson who voiced the message of 
January 28 as well as the one herewith enclosed. 

"The incongruities and discrepancies in the message must, 
in order to satisfy me, be explained in some other way than 
by a denial of the individuality assigned or by any theory 
of an attempt upon my part to deceive. My integrity, 
however, I trust is not in question." 

More to the point and far more interesting and 
valuable, could we be wholly sure of its authenticity, 
is the explanation given by the spirit of Dr. Hodgson 
at a subsequent Sunday meeting, he having heard, 
it seems, of the criticism. He tells how the infor- 



78 HODGSON'S EXPLANATION 

mation which he gave to the medium got twisted. 
The following I quote from the stenographic notes 
of this second address. 

That the reader may have a clearer idea of the 
way these communications come, I give the steno- 
graphic notes somewhat in full. 

"Stenographic report of message delivered by spirit of Dr. 
Richard Hodgson, through the mediumship of Rev. 
Frederick A. Wiggin, at Seance held under the auspices 
of Unity Church, Boston, Mass., Sunday evening, 
February eighteenth, nineteen hundred and six, at 
Jordan Hall, New England Conservatory of Music. 

" Mr. Chairman and Friends : 

"I come once more through this instrument in the en- 
deavor to register upon your minds something with reference 
to the facts pertaining to spirit control and return. The 
message which I have to deliver to-night will be comparatively 
brief. I wish your stenographer would carefully take down 
every word I speak, not alone because of its importance, 
but more especially that I may not be misquoted. I further- 
more desire this message sent immediately to my old friend 
in New York, Dr. I. K. Funk. 

"Say to the world and to him, that I, Richard Hodgson, 
of spirit life, have found myself at last adjusted to the sphere 
of my present habitation. . . . All expression would be 
quite impossible without some medium, and until some 
development in conscious evolution — in the course of the 
things which pertain to the development which is spiritual — 
determines an exact ratio in spiritual comprehension upon 
the part of the medium and the understanding of the same 
by the spirit attempting to communicate. Until then 
incontrovertible facts of spirit return, and especially of 
identity, will continue difficult to obtain. 



COMPLICATED THEORY 79 

"I find upon attempting to converse with human beings 
through mediums, that impression, or impact, must be 
made upon the inner of the dual mind and for oral expression 
outer faculties must be employed. 

"The excarnate world is not in perfect conscious accord 
with the objective faculties of human beings, and seldom 
is a trance so thorough that the inner or subconscious mind 
of the medium is attuned to his own intellectual sphere — 
which is of the spiritual — whereby it may establish itself 
the dominating factor of the psychic's mental organism. 

"Whenever the subjective mind desires to express itself 
or to voice an impression made upon it, objectively, its 
medium for doing so must be one or more of sensitives, 
whereby normal understanding becomes palpable. But 
let it be known that subconsciousness is in the ascendency 
only when the psychic is fully entranced. In order to employ 
any one of the normal senses of the psychic, his objective 
mind is to an extent aroused and the trance becomes partial 
only; with the semi-awakening of the normal senses of the 
psychic, the only department of his mind capable of receiving 
definite impressions from the spirit is frequently interfered 
with. The medium is not wholly aroused from the trance, 
but to a degree the objective mind receives the spirit im- 
pression made upon the inner mind only as an echo. 

"This will explain the reason for the discrepancy made 
in the message which I voiced in the words to Dr. Funk, 
and the general public through this medium on the evening 
of the 28th day of January, 1906. I focused the facts of 
the case of the fall of Dr. Funk's mother, together with 
other matters, clearly enough upon the seat of the medium's 
receptive consciousness; but to the medium's partially 
aroused objective mind, the person of Dr. Funk's wife was 
realized. The error of assigning the circumstance connnected 
with the mother, was due to the fact that the medium's 
objective senses took cognizance of the wife and the sub- 
consciousness received the impression as from me. 

" It is true that such results are embarrassing to a medium 
of intelligence through whom they are made. But instead 



80 SOME QUERIES 

of condemning the medium, he should be encouraged, and 
especially by scientists, to try again in the hope of getting 
a more perfect statement. ... I entertain conclusions with 
reference to psychic phenomena very different from those 
I entertained while living in the body. 

" It is not my desire to reach simply the Psychical Research 
Society with a message that shall appeal to their more or 
less scientific minds, but rather it is my desire to reach the 
world with a word of assurance that shall give comfort." 



It is difficult to refrain from wondering why the 
spirit of Dr. Hodgson, if it were really he, did not 
correct the error " then and there " when the medium 
first uttered it. Are we to believe the spirit impinges 
his thought on the medium's brain, and does not hear 
the voice of the medium and hence is not aware 
whether the message is transmitted correctly or not? 
Oddly as this may seem to us, Dr. Hodgson told 
me when he was in the flesh that this is a fact with 
many of the communications that come from spirits 
through Mrs. Piper. 

Moreover, I can not help but think that if this 
communication was from Dr. Hodgson, it is a pity 
that it did not occur to him to select an incident that 
had not been referred to recently in the press; but 
as spirits are not omniscient, it may be that he was 
not at all aware of this publication. 

In fairness, however, to the Rev. Mr. Wiggin 
and to the ghost of my esteemed friend, I here record 



WALTER HUBBELL THE ACTOR 81 

a curious coincidence. While I was preparing this 
Hodgson chapter for the press, there called at my 
residence a gentleman whom I had never previously 
met, the actor Walter Hubbell, a gentleman who has 
been on the stage many years and is favorably spoken 
of in theatrical and other circles; he is the author 
of the well-known book "The Amherst Mystery." 
Mr. Hubbell gave me the following personal ex- 
periences which he had at a meeting in a public hall 
where the same Rev. Mr. Wiggin was speaker and 
medium. This was some two years ago in Boston. 
These notes Mr. Hubbell tells me he wrote out 
immediately after returning from the church — I 
give them entire: 

JOHN MCCULLOUGH'S GHOST 

I have had such a remarkable experience to-night that I 
hasten to write it out, as a matter of record, while it is still 
fresh in my mind. 

Having heard that the Rev. F. A. "Wiggin, pastor of the 
Spiritual Temple, would close his lectures and seances 
to-night, until September, I attended. 

It having been stated that Mr. Wiggin is controlled by 
the spirit of John McCullough, the tragedian, whom I knew, 
I obtained a piece of blue paper of a deep and uncommon 
shade of color, not easily matched or duplicated, and with 
purple ink wrote these words upon it: "John McCullough, 
do you remember this? 'Does no one speak? I am 
defendant here! ' " After Mr. Wiggin had given a number 
of messages to the writers of letters placed on the table, 
he stopt for a moment, and said: "Friends, I wish to 
6 



82 ACTOR McCULLOUGH'S GHOST 

say that I, the spirit of John McCullough, the actor, control 
this medium, and that some person in this audience has 
written some words I often spoke upon the stage in earth- 
life, upon a piece of paper, asking me if I remember them. 
I know the person who asks this question well, and he has 
appeared upon the stage with me. The words he asks about 
I spoke for years before Appius Claudius in the Forum Scene, 
of the Fourth Act, of 'Virginius,' after my return from 
battle and they are: 'Does no one speak? I am defendant 
here!' The paper containing them is now upon the table 
and I have not touched it." 

I replied that this was all correct. He then addrest me 
and said: "And you have been in that same play?" To 
which I replied: "Yes, but not with you, John, but with 
another. " And he answered or rather affirmed my state- 
ment, by saying: "Yes, I know that." All of which is the 
truth, I having appeared with him in "Coriolanus," "Jack 
Cade," and "The Gladiator," but never in "Virginius," 
appearing afterward as "Appius Claudius," when another 
man played "Virginius" after John had passed away. 

The seance then proceeded, letters being answered for 
a score or more of persons; Mr. Wiggin being blindfolded 
all the while, as from the first, with a black silk handkerchief. 
When I heard him remark that the seance would soon close, 
I said: "John, may I ask you a question?" He replying 
in the affirmative, I asked if he had met Edwin Forrest 
in the spirit-world. The answer was: "Often." I then 
asked if Forrest was now happy. He replied that no man 
knew Forrest better than he did in earth-life, and that he 
knew Forrest's surrounding conditions made him, while 
on the earth plane, unhappy, but that now he was with people 
who understood him and that he was contented. 

He concluded his conversation with me by remarking 
that there were but few tragedians on the stage, owing to 
the strange ideas of the managers, who were wrong about it; 
and that he would talk with me again. I will close this 
account by remarking that instead of putting the piece of 
blue paper upon which I had written the words already 



HUBBELL'S PRECAUTIONS 83 

mentioned into the large basket at the door on entering the 
hall I kept it concealed in my inside coat pocket, until the 
small box for collecting coins was placed in front of me. 
I placed the paper in the box, and it was carried directly to 
the platform, consequently never being out of my sight. 
I do not know Mr. Wiggin at all, and did not know, either 
personally or by sight, even one of the one thousand intelli- 
gent ladies and gentlemen composing the audience, all of 
whom can corroborate this statement of facts. 

As I have never appeared on the stage of any theater in 
Boston, I am sure no person in that audience knew or recog- 
nized me — except the ghost or spirit of John McCullough. 

(Signed) Walter Hubbell. 
1038 Washington St., Boston, Mass. 

In answer to my question Mr. Hubbell assures me 
that he did not mention to any one his intention to 
attend this seance, nor did he sign his name to the 
question, nor was there anything about the written 
note to identify him; that he placed the letter in the 
box with the written side down and he put a coin 
on top of it ; that Mr. Wiggin sat in the center of the 
stage when Mr. Hubbell entered the hall, and that 
he did not leave the stage for an instant nor did any 
one approach him up to the time that he answered 
this question; that the various questions sent up 
by the audience were dumped out of the baskets 
upon the table in front of Mr. Wiggin. Mr. Wiggin 
was blindfolded prior to Mr. HubbelPs entrance. 

Mr. Hubbell is himself well acquainted with the 
tricks of professional jugglers, and is somewhat of an 



84 HUBBELL'S SINCERITY 

adept in producing them. He has been frequently 
behind the curtains at juggling exhibitions and has 
watched the confederates working the wires and ma- 
nipulating the other machinery. It is not likely that 
Mr. Hubbell would be an easy man for a professional 
medium to trick. I have letters from nearly a dozen 
men of standing who bear strong testimony to Mr. 
Hubbell's sincerity, honesty, and honor, having 
known him from five to twenty years. After care- 
fully investigating I have no doubt as to Mr. Hub- 
bell's good faith in his narration. 



85 



IV 



THE PHENOMENA KNOWN AS INDEPENDENT VOICES 

What are known in spiritualistic parlance as inde- 
pendent voices are a startling class of phenomena 
— hard to believe as are those of materialization. 

What is an independent voice? 

By this name the spiritualist usually means that 
the spirit entity organizes a set of vocal organs inde- 
pendent of the medium's body, and talks through 
these organs. A heavy draft this, on credulity, 
for it asks us to believe that there is extemporized 
out of hand in the seance-room a human throat, 
larynx, vocal cords, palate, tongue, teeth, lips and 
lungs — or something equivalent to them — all this 
in a few minutes of time. 

"Immeasurably absurd/' of course, nine out of 
ten average readers will exclaim. 

Can we believe it? 

That is not the question. The question to be 
settled is, is it a fact? If a fact, that settles it; 
but so strange a fact must be supported by proof of 
an incontestable sort. If a fact, we must accept it, 
and then account for it how and when we can. 



86 EMILY S. FRENCH 



In the early part of 1905 I received a letter from a 
prominent lawyer in Buffalo, N. Y. — Mr. E. C. Ran- 
dall, head of the firm of Randall, Hurley & Porter 
requesting that I investigate " a remarkable medium " 
of his acquaintance, by name Emily S. French, 1 
through whom come independent voices and for 
whose honesty he would vouch. Said he: "About 
fourteen years ago I became acquainted with this 
woman. I was sure her phenomena were the result 
of fraud and I determined to expose it. After many 
sittings and exacting experiments I became con- 
vinced that they were genuine, and finally at the 
suggestion of the spirit intelligences I had fitted up 
a seance-room in my own house in which my wife, 
the medium, and myself held seances, and we have 
done this now for more than a dozen years. I have 
tested Mrs. French in every way I can think of, 
and am thoroughly convinced that the phenomena 
are what they claim to be. The talks are often 
exceedingly instructive and I have had many of 
them taken down in shorthand. I wish you would 
do me and others here the favor to investigate thor- 

1 1 give the name of this medium in full because Mr. Ran- 
dall in his lately published book, "Life's Progress," does this. 



AN EDITOR'S TESTIMONY 87 

oughly these manifestations, and I would be very glad 
to have you visit us and remain as long as you desire 
at my house for this purpose. Every facility for 
thorough scientific investigation will be granted you. 
Rest assured, you will find the phenomena exactly 
what I tell you they are." 

About the same time I received an urgent letter 
from an editor of one of the leading dailies in the 
western part of the State, urging a " scientific inves- 
tigation of some extraordinary psychic phenomena 
that come through a Mrs. French, and which are 
perplexing some of our best minds. The phenomena 
are much out of the ordinary, and the medium is 
not a public medium who exhibits for pay." 

Shortly after this correspondence Mr. A. W. Moore, 
the secretary of the Rochester Art Club, wrote to me 
as follows — I quote very fully from his letter as its 
story is interestingly told: 

" My attention was called to Mrs. French's phase of medium- 
ship about twenty years ago, when I was on the editorial 
staff of the Union and Advertiser, Rochester, N. Y. 

"At that time I was not only an unbeliever in spiritual 
manifestation, but prejudiced against it, believing it nothing 
but fraud. In reporting of it to the press I always treated 
medium ship with ridicule and sarcasm. 

"One summer's day I had occasion to visit Hemlock 
Lake and there met by chance J. Nelson Tubbs, the well- 
known civil engineer, and now Inspector of the Erie Canal. 
Our conversation drifted into Spiritualism which I so firmly 
discountenanced and ridiculed that he asked when, where, 



88 LED TO INVESTIGATE 

and how long I had investigated the subject. I had to 
confess that I had really investigated the subject very slightly. 
He pointed out the inconsistency of my condemning medium- 
ship and taking such strong grounds against it without ever 
having taken the trouble to examine into the subject, and 
he warned me to be careful in writing about it until I got 
better posted. Mr. Tubbs then gave me an account of his 
investigations carried on during a series of years which 
resulted in his being a firm believer in spirit return. He 
gave an account of his experiences with various mediums 
and particularly the phase of manifestation peculiar to Mrs. 
French, viz.: Independent voices. He advised me to have 
a talk with Judge Dean Shuart of Rochester, who was for 
many years Judge of the Surrogate Court of Monroe County. 

"The fact that two such level-headed men — one an emi- 
nent civil engineer and mathematician, demanding ' weight 
and measure' in his profession; the other, a learned jurist 
and man of such unimpeachable character that he had been 
repeatedly elected to the responsible office of Surrogate 
Judge — had prof est their full belief in spiritism, caused 
me to reflect deeply. I, therefore, on my return home, 
sought out Judge Shuart, and that gentleman told me many 
things that set me to thinking. He spoke of Mrs. French 
and arranged for me to attend a private seance at the house 
of a mutual friend. 

" In the mean time, with a newspaper man's soul, I found 
out something about the lady's antecedents. She belongs 
to the American branch of the Pierrepont family, the head 
of which is the Earl of Manvers, whose principal estate is 
at Holme Pierrepont, Nottinghamshire, England. I bor- 
rowed a book giving the history of the American branch, 
in which there is a list of the members of the family then 
living in the United States. In the list I found the name 
of the late Judge Pierrepont, one time minister to the Court 
of St. James, London, and at the very end, I found the names 
of Mrs. Emily S. French and her only child, Mrs. D. Oberst. 
Mrs. French is the widow of the late Lieut. French of the 
United States Volunteers, who lost his life during the War of 



METHODS ADOPTED 89 

the Rebellion. She draws the pension of an officer's widow. 
For many years she has made her home with her daughter, 
and her chief pleasure in life is administering to the comfort 
and education of her grandchildren. She is a lady of refine- 
ment and possesses the charming, unassuming, and gentle 
manners of a well-born race. 

"With this information I attended a seance as arranged 
by Judge Shuart. There were present, besides my wife and 
myself, Mr. and Mrs. Austin (our hosts), and Judge Shuart 
and one or two others. We met in a small room upstairs 
and after being seated and taking hold of hands in a circle, 
the light was extinguished. It was explained to me that it 
was absolutely necessary that not the slightest trace of light be 
allowed to enter the room. Judge Shuart asked all present 
to sing, saying that vibrations were necessary. We, there- 
fore, sang several familiar songs and afterward talked on 
various subjects, when all at once, a voice, loud and sonorous, 
high above our heads, exclaimed: 'I greet you, my friends!' 
The suddenness of the voice startled all present into silence, 
and the speaker continued to talk. After continuing for a 
while, the voice said : ' Ask any questions you may wish 
and I will answer them to the best of my ability.' I asked, 
'What is your name?' The answer came, 'I was known 
as Red Jacket when in the mortal.' I then asked him to 
describe conditions in the spirit-world and the passing of 
the spirit out of the body. In reply, Red Jacket gave a 
long talk on his own experience. He said at the time of 
his passing out he was in a very low spiritual condition, due 
to the excessive use of 'fire-water' which the white man 
had taught him to indulge in, and also to his intense hatred 
of the ' pale faces ' on account of their having robbed his 
people of their hunting grounds, etc. He then described 
some of the ordeals his spirit had to undergo in order to over- 
come the desire for strong drink which still clung to him, 
and to turn his hatred of the white man into love. 

"I can merely touch upon my experience at this seance. 
Other voices came, male and female. My impression at the 
close of the seance was that the whole thing was an imposture, 



90 SKEPTICAL 

and I determined to find it out somehow. I told r Judge 
Shuart frankly that the voices were made by some living 
person, and that if he would examine the cellar of the house 
he would find a pipe leading from thence to the room. The 
Judge immediately requested me to go with him into the 
cellar, a damp low-ceilinged place, full of cobwebs, but we 
saw not the slightest indication of a speaking-tube. I 
then fell back on ventriloquism and accused Mr. Austin of 
doing the business. 

" To all of this Judge Shuart listened kindly and suggested 
that I follow up my investigations until I had discovered 
the fraud. 'If there is fraud in Mrs. French's circles/ the 
Judge said, 'I would like to know it, because my time is 
too precious to waste by attending these stances.' Con- 
tinuing he said, ■ I have been sitting with Mrs. French from 
time to time for the past five years and tested her in every 
possible way that my mind could suggest, but I have never 
discovered the slightest trace of fraud. My friend, you will, 
if you continue your investigations, be compelled to acknowl- 
edge that Mrs. French's voices are occasioned by a power 
beyond the material, and the only conclusion you can arrive 
at is that they are, as they claim to be, Spiritual.' 

"To be brief, I will s?y I attended another seance at the 
house of Mr. Austin, with the full conviction that I would 
be able to detect Mr. Austin as the ventriloquist. But on 
arriving at the house I found that he had been telegraphed 
for by his son who wp-s mayor of a town in Colorado. Con- 
sequently, the seance took place without the presence of 
the man I suspected. The voices came as usual and stronger 
than on the previous occasion. I was placed next to Mrs. 
French in the circle and took hold of her left hand, her other 
hand being taken by Judge Shuart. When the voices came 
Mrs. French placed her mouth on the back of my hand until 
the spirits ceased talking. 

" While Red Jacket delivered an address his voice suddenly 
seemed to die out like the notes of an organ when the wind 
fails, and he exclaimed 'SingP When his voice came again 
he explained that the cause of his voice failing was lack of 



A CAREFUL TEST 91 

vibrations, and he entered upon a discourse regarding the 
wonderful atmospheres, electrical conditions, ethers, and 
vibratory forces of which mortals were quite ignorant, that 
formed the conditions that enabled spirits to throw their 
voices into our atmosphere. At the conclusion of this 
seance I was just as skeptical as ever, and still more deter- 
mined to fathom the mystery of the voices. 

" I went again and again to the seances held by Mrs. French 
and I took with me one of the chief skeptics in the city, 
Mr. J. McCall, who denounced the whole proceeding as a fraud, 
but he failed to point it out. His vehement denunciation 
of Mrs. French aroused me to protest, and I said, surely 
before you are so loud in your condemnation you ought to 
point out where the voices come from. 'The fact is/ I 
said, 'I am beginning to think that they may be spirit- 
voices, because I have exhausted every device for detecting 
fraud and failed.' 'Did you ever have Mrs. French give 
a seance in your own house?' asked McCall. 'No,' said I. 
'Then,' replied he, 'if you can get her to produce the voices 
in your house you will find, if she accepts your invitation, 
that the thing won't work.' I asked Mrs. French if she 
would come to my house. She replied that nothing would 
give her greater pleasure. A few days afterward, Mr. 
McCall and wife were at our house and I suggested that it 
would be a good opportunity to have Mrs. French over. 
I walked to her house, a short distance away, and brought 
her back with me. We sat in my study, and there were 
present on the occasion Mr. and Mrs. McCall, a nephew of 
mine just arrived from England, my wife, and myself. We 
had no sooner turned out the light when Red Jacket said in 
the loudest tones I had yet heard: 'You see, Brother Moore, 
I can come to you even in your own house!' He then went 
on to describe the work he was doing as a missionary spirit. 
It took him a long time, he said, to outgrow earth conditions 
and appetites, in order that he might try and undo many 
things he had done in the flesh. His great anxiety was to 
come and return good for evil among those whom he called 
the 'pale faces.' He was happy when he attracted the 



92 TWENTY YEARS' EXPERIENCE 

attention of the white men so that he could teach them some- 
thing of spiritual law. He said the spirits are working very 
hard to bring about conditions by which there can be an 
intercommunication between the two worlds, and the time 
is coming, said Red Jacket, when materialized spirits would 
appear upon platforms and address large audiences. The 
reason that Indian spirits took a large part in spiritual mani- 
festations is because America was their hunting-ground and 
the red men lived close to Nature and were thus tremen- 
dously magnetic. 

"Well, in brief, the stance was most wonderful; not only 
did Red Jacket come with great power, but several other 
spirits who spoke on different topics. 

"The result of this seance was, that Mr. McCall shook 
hands with me and said, ' Moore, I believe the voices are 
spiritual!' From that date Mr. McCall became a thorough 
believer and prominent in Spiritualistic circles. 

"Since that period I have attended so many of Mrs. 
French's circles that it would be impossible to give in a letter 
the many wonderful communications I have had. ... I 
think I can say that I have attended in the neighborhood of 
one thousand of Mrs. French's stances in the last twenty 
years. 

"I have learned enough wisdom from the old Seneca 
Sachem Red Jacket regarding spiritual things to fill a large 
volume. His sermons are at times full of pathos and beauty, 
and I have known the circle to be brought to tears by his 
eloquence. He lays great stress on the necessity of living 
lives of purity, temperance, and benevolence. He admon- 
ishes us especially to be charitable toward those who oppose 
the spiritual philosophy and cling tenaciously to dogmatic 
theology. He tells us not to try and convert people, but 
by our example and words draw them to inquire into that 
which gives blessings and peace to us. 

"I might add many things to this testimony regarding 
Mrs. French, whom I believe to be a most honorable and trust- 
worthy lady, who would scorn to do a dishonest thing, and 
would never for one moment give herself over to fraud and 



URGED TO INVESTIGATE 93 

deceit. The fact is, she does not have to, as her manifes- 
tations are among the most wonderful and instructive to 
be found in the world to-day." 

Mr. Moore in his correspondence again and again 
urged that I undertake a serious investigation of 
the psychic phenomena as manifested through Mrs. 
French. 

Earnest as were these and other urgings, I said 
"No," having so often been led on wild-goose chases 
in hunting up phenomena of this class and classes 
similar to it, and besides I long since had made up 
my mind to accept no phenomena as genuine when 
the conditions were not wholly under my control, 
and these, it seemed to me, would not be, especially 
as they were produced in the dark. 

Finally, I was visited in my New York office by a 
lawyer from Rochester, a man whose integrity and 
level-headedness are nowhere questioned and who is a 
lawyer of State- wide reputation. He came to urge me 
to the same investigation. He told me that he also 
had known Mrs. French for many years, and had 
visited her sittings very many times the past five 
years; that his partner, now dead, who was also 
a prominent lawyer and a judge, was thoroughly 
convinced of her honesty, and was convinced that 
the phenomena were of spirit origin; he declared 
that he himself was not a Spiritualist, and hence did 



94 CONDITIONS AGREED UPON 

not wish his name mentioned in connection with 
the matter, and finally suggested that he should try 
to induce this aged woman to come to New York 
for two weeks, and to be wholly under my direction, 
for the most thorough investigation that I would 
care to make. He said it would be best, however, 
for him to send with her a lady friend of his, as Mrs. 
French was now over seventy years of age and was 
exceedingly feeble, being afflicted with heart trouble 
which made it unsafe for her to travel alone. He 
assured me that she gave no sittings for pay, that 
she was a refined, well-bred woman, a delicate lady 
in every sense of the word, and that the friend whom 
he would send with her as an escort was one that he 
had known for nearly a quarter of a century, and for 
whom he would vouch in the strongest possible way. 
I finally assented, and the conditions agreed upon 
were as follows: 

1. No one was to come with Mrs. French except 
the one lady escort. 

2. Both ladies should stop at the home that I 
designated. 

3. That the sittings should be at such house as I 
would make known to them after their arrival in 
New York, and this house was not to be visited by 
the medium or her friend except during our sittings, 
nor by any person representing them. 



TERMS ACCEPTED 95 

4. Both women were to follow my directions abso- 
lutely while in New York City. 

These terms were accepted cheerfully. 

The unconditional acceptance of the requirements 
made of the series of tests a very interesting case. 

In the first place, there was nothing doubtful in the 
history of the medium. The testimony from those 
who knew her showed that she was most highly 
respected, that she had in her favor the verdict of 
the. jury of the vicinage where she had lived over 
three score years. This rightly counts for much 
in one's favor. Among those of whom I have since 
inquired concerning her history are many who have 
known her for many years, all at least five years, 
and one, a man who had been acquainted with her for 
over sixty years. She has come of good stock, and 
that is also an element that counts; she is a Pierre- 
pont, one of the most noted families of the State of 
New York; in short she is what the old-fashioned 
novelists would call high- 'or lady-bred. Those of 
whom I have inquired — several of whom are not 
Spiritualists — are unanimous in telling me that they 
regard her as a person incapable of deception or 
falsehood. 

But, in the acceptance of so uncommon a phe- 
nomenon as that of independent voices, our proof 
should be of a sort that does not depend at all on the 



96 IDEAL CONDITIONS 

honesty of the medium. People of good reputation, 
even " Sunday-school men," have been known to lie. 
Proof that measures up to the standard required 
must be of a kind that implies an absurdity to suppose 
the phenomenon is not what is claimed for it. 

Still, it was a satisfaction to have, for testing, a 
medium with an unblemished reputation, and to 
have for point two — a seance-room that made trap- 
doors and confederates impossibilities. A close 
friend of m:ne, a wealthy business man in New York, 
whom I have known for over thirty years, consented 
to permit me to use a room in his family apartment 
for this series of stances. It would be difficult to 
conceive of a better room for this purpose. The 
windows of the apartment are so arranged that they 
all open out about fifty feet above the surface of the 
ground. It is entered by two doors, one from the 
hall which leads to the elevator, and the other from 
a fire-escape. The latter at all of our sittings was 
locked and chained from the inside, and in addition 
a heavy trunk rested against the door. The hall 
door was also locked from the inside. At several of 
the series of sittings I kept the key of this door in my 
pocket during the entire time. The persons at the 
seances were this friend whom I will call Mr. Z., 
his wife and daughter and myself, the medium and 
her lady escort — these comprized all of the persons who 



EXPERIENCED INVESTIGATORS 97 

were in the apartment; not a servant, not even an 
animal pet of any kind was allowed in the apartment 
during the sittings, except on two occasions— once we 
invited an outside friend, and once a friend and his 
wife. 

Mrs. Z. has often investigated Spiritualistic phe- 
nomena with me during the last twenty years. She 
is an expert at this kind of detective work. Her 
daughter also has attended a large number of 
seances, and withal is an author of reputation. 
Both Mrs. and Miss Z. are very skeptical as to the 
Spiritualistic hypothesis and are, in my judgment, 
keen investigators and have a lively knowledge of 
human nature, especially of the woman sort. Mr. Z. 
himself has been for years a student of psychic mat- 
ters and has had no little experience with the tricks 
of mediumistic fakers. I know of no house or family 
better fitted for the work I here and then undertook. 

There is another fact to be noted. After my atten- 
tion was first called to Mrs. French, I had a friend 
who is an able expert in psychic matters to go from 
New York to Buffalo to attend some of Mrs. French's 
seances and to make report to me. He did so, and 
his report on the whole was unfavorable, basing his 
conclusions mainly on "the darkness of the seance- 
room, the possibility of the medium producing the 

voices herself, and also on this other fact, that one 
7 



98 A NON-SEQUITUR 

of the voices spoke of a physician who was sick at 
a distance from Buffalo, a fact my friend afterward 
discovered was known personally to the medium. 
The opportunities for investigation by this friend 
were not of the best, and the time was brief and, as 
he afterward informed me, he was not acquainted 
"with all the facts that are favorable to Mrs. French." 
I had the detailed written report of this friend for 
my guidance in my own much larger series of sittings. 
Having the medium in the house of my selection 
gave me also a great advantage. 

I trust my readers will pardon me for digressing 
at this point a moment in reply to certain critics. 

Again and again Spiritualists lose patience with 
me, one saying very vigorously that I am not a 
medium and hence can not be competent to judge 
of mediumship. The conclusion may be sound, 
but it is a non-sequitur. I believe that I am better 
fitted to pass judgment on mediumship than a 
medium can possibly be, who is always supersen- 
sitive and often in a trance. John B. Finch used 
to say, " I can not lay an egg, but I am a better judge 
whether an egg is good or bad than all the hens in 
the country." 

J. R. Francis, the editor of the Progressive Thinker, 
a Spiritualistic paper published in Chicago, has done 



TESTING A MEDIUM 99 

more — I am sure I am well within bounds in saying 
it — to free Spiritualism from fraud than any other 
man in America. Mr. Francis has been pleased in 
writing recently to declare that he regards me 
as "an ideal investigator of psychic phenomena," 
and that he regards my methods as being exact and 
far-reaching and altogether fair. I think it well 
to say these things at this point so as to help lead 
my readers to free their minds as far as possible 
from all prepossession against my testimony concern- 
ing the extraordinary facts I record in the follow- 
ing pages. 

THE TESTING OF "INDEPENDENT VOICES" 

First Sitting, Monday, May 29, 1905: 

Mrs. French and her escort Mrs. Blank arrived in 
New York on Monday evening, May 29, 1905, at 
about 6 o'clock p.m. At 7:30 they were escorted 
from the boarding-house by Miss Z. to the apart- 
ment which I had selected for the seances. The 
room off the parlor had been fitted up by Mr. Z. 
as a seance-room, simply by arranging the one 
window to the room so as to exclude the outside 
light. The size of this room is about twelve feet 
square. We were seated in a semicircle around a 
small table in the order indicated on the diagram. 

LOFCa 



100 



pd^^e 




jjZ^ueorFkeT "J i — £ f f" , 



THE ROOM WHERE THE "INDEPENDENT VOICE" 
EXPERIMENTS WERE MADE 



DARKNESS OBJECTIONABLE 101 

It was decided that our series of meetings should 
be held in the evenings, beginning promptly at 7: 30 
o'clock and that the sittings were to be strictly 
private. 

I dislike the condition of absolute darkness in the 
production of psychic phenomena, as it immensely 
increases the difficulty of making absolute tests. 
I asked a "control" at one of our earlier meetings 
the reason why they could not produce their phe- 
nomena without darkness. The answer was : " The 
nature of the phenomena and the physical condition 
of the medium make any other course impossible. 
Were the medium in good health we might carefully 
experiment, but now we can not. To try it would 
be fatal to the medium. We understand your wishes 
and the reason for them, but you must believe us 
when we tell you that you ask what is impossible." 
This of course proved nothing, nor did it help us over 
the difficulty; yet, of course, it is true that light has 
a certain dynamic power. Every second, millions 
of light waves strike blows where they are admitted, 
and there are processes in nature from which it must 
be excluded. As has often been said, the prenatal 
child matures in absolute darkness, and light must 
be excluded from the photographic plate. 

Electrical Engineer W. W. Bradfield of the Mar- 
coni Wireless Telegraph Company wrote me, under 



102 WIRELESS TELEGRAPHY HINDERED 

date of May 23, 1906, that light at times has been 
found a serious detriment in wireless telegraphy. 
This fact was first noticed on the occasion of " a voyage 
made by M. Marconi on the SS. Philadelphia, when 
he observed that at 500 miles from our station at 
Poldhu, Cornwall, England, signals received in the 
day were not appreciably weaker than those received 
the night before at about 350 miles. So soon, how- 
ever, as the distance exceeded 700 miles, no signals 
were received during the day, altho at night they 
remained clearly perceptible up to a distance of 
2,000 miles." 

Prof. Charles Richet, in his address published in 
the January (1905) number of the Annals of Psychic 
Science, says : Moreover, there is nothing unreason- 
able in the admission that light may exercise an 
inhibitory effect upon certain kinds of phenomena. 
It is often alleged: " Darkness is required by spirits 
only because all kinds of trickery are possible in the 
dark, but this conclusion is absurd." Pp. 28, 29. 
Richet further holds that if careful precautions are 
taken "it is rather foolish to consider worthless all 
experiments made in the dark." 

Absolute darkness calls for special care, but this 
is not a sufficient reason to refuse to investigate. 

This evening before we entered the cabinet-room 
we observed that Mrs. French was exceedingly deaf, 



THE MEDIUM'S DEAFNESS 103 

so deaf in fact, that it was difficult to make her hear 
in conversation except the voice was considerably 
raised, and this even when we were removed from her 
not more than three feet. This fact became an im- 
portant one in our testings, and hence afterward 
I sought for fullest confirmation of her deafness by 
correspondence with several physicians who have 
attended her — including Dr. Alvin A. Hubbell, of 
Buffalo, a specialist in eye and ear diseases rec- 
ognized as an authority of much weight ; especially 
is his testimony here of special importance as he 
is not a Spiritualist. The testimony of these various 
doctors leaves no doubt in my mind as to the gen- 
uineness of this serious defect in the hearing of Mrs. 
French. (See Appendix A.) 

We waited in the darkness about twenty minutes, 
having joined hands. It will be observed by the 
diagram [see page 100] that Mrs. Blank was placed 
between Mr. Z. and myself, he having hold of her 
left hand, and I having hold of her right hand; and 
Miss Z. was next to me and Mrs. Z. next to her. Mrs. 
French sat at the table directly in front of myself, 
about four feet distant. The first voice that came 
was an exceedingly loud masculine voice which, 
we were informed by Mrs. Blank, was that of one of 
the controls, the Indian chief, Red Jacket — the inevi- 



104 SPIRIT LIFE 

table Indian! The voice spoke consecutively about 
ten minutes on the work the "forces" wished to do 
at this series of meetings — he and those with him. 
They were exceedingly anxious, this voice assured 
us, to make us know, and make those with whom 
we came in contact know, not believe, but know 
that life is continuous. 1 

"We live," he said, "as real lives, more real — 
on this side than we did when on earth. The 
laws that govern life are the same here as with 
you. In fact, everything here is so real that many 
who come over — die, as you call it — do not know 
for a long time that they are dead. A great part 
of the work to be done here is to instruct the dead 
in the true science of progress. To the circles held 
by this medium we often bring dazed and earth- 
bound spirits, so as to be able to reach their con- 
sciousness through earth surroundings. We and 
they are then brought to the same place and we 
then can better make them understand their con- 
dition, they at these seances often recognize the 
voices of those whom in earth-life they knew, and who 

*In these "talks," the ideas are those of the intelligences 
or " spirits," but the verbiage is often my own. As I said 
in the preface to the " Widow's Mite," p. 5, "I have a mem- 
ory that has a reputation with editorial associates of being un- 
usually retentive of thoughts, but it is a wretched verbal mem- 
ory." I wrote out each evening a full report of the meeting. 



GOVERNED BY SAME LAWS 105 

are in the circle. Many of you people in the flesh 
think that those who die are done with time and 
with the earth, but it is still time and it is still earth 
after we pass over. We have not reached the out- 
lines of time nor of the material world. Life on both 
sides of the grave is part of the same plan and has the 
same object and is governed largely by the same laws. 

" Think not that the spirit world has not a language 
of its own. We have a language compared with which 
the earth languages are blundering. It is heart-and- 
mind-language. You have what you call telepathy. 
Do any of you know what that is? When you find 
that out you will know somewhat about our language. 

" It may be said that the spirit hears what it wishes 
to hear, and that it makes its own world. Each 
spirit is a creator. You have faculties that are now 
only faintly imagined by you. There is reality. 
The Great Spirit is reality. We can not explain 
these things to you. Only the most developed 
among us know the beginnings of these things. We 
blunder here as you blunder on the earth, but there 
is great progress. You must not believe every 
spirit any more than you believe every man. To 
some this is a dream world, or rather dream worlds, 
for there are as many of these worlds almost as there 
are individuals. But this spirit world is also sub- 
ject to law. It has its environments and its develop- 



106 VARIOUS VOICES 

ments. It has its scientific basis and limitations 
as you would call it. You must learn to think of 
this world and of the people in it as real." 

The various talks of Red Jacket this evening in 
all must have covered one hour, bearing largely on 
the main thought running through the above talk. 
This kind of talk is not new to those who frequently 
attend the better class of seances. If we can believe 
these "spirits" death is not a barrier, but a highway, 
like was the sea to the Vikings. But the thoughts 
exprest had comparatively little interest to me, for 
I already believed these truths, and some of them 
seemed to be but an echo from my own mind and 
might have been gathered by any bright medium 
through reading my mind. What I wished to know 
was whether this loud voice was produced by that 
feeble little woman sitting at the table; or whether 
the voice was produced through extemporized vocal 
organs by a foreign intelligence — this latter alter- 
native seemed to me extremely improbable. 

The thought exprest by the other voices during 
this first evening were all of an exalted kind, and 
they were always ready to answer the questions 
which we asked. 

Some of the voices were bright and one or two even 
" snappy," but the voices of Red Jacket and Dr. 
Hossack, another of the principal controls, were ex- 



LOCATING SOUND DIFFICULT 107 

ceedingly serious, impressing one that their owners 
were intelligences of great earnestness. 

It was quickly evident that one of two hypotheses 
must furnish the explanation of these phenomena. 
Either they were produced through conscious fraud 
on the part of the medium, a fraud which has been 
continued now for more than two score years, or 
they were produced by foreign intelligences. Let it 
be remembered that the hands of all in the circle 
were joined together, except the hands of the me- 
dium, I having hold of the right hand of Mrs. 
Blank and Mr. Z. having hold of her left hand. We 
frequently talked to Mrs. Blank while the voices 
were talking. Mrs. Blank was in this way prac- 
tically eliminated from the problem. The voice of 
Red Jacket appeared to come from a point some four 
feet above the head of the medium, and about three 
feet to the left of her as she sat facing the members 
of the semicircle. 

After I had fully fixt the locality in my mind, 
I asked one after another in the circle to locate the 
point in the room from which the voice came. This 
I did without telling my own impression. All 
located it at about the same spot that I did. 

It must be remembered that it is not an easy thing 
to locate from whence a sound comes in darkness. 
Those who have never tried it will find it an inter- 



108 "DR. HOSSACK" 

esting experiment. At my request, the voice of 
Red Jacket changed to different parts of the room. 
This it did always on the side where the medium was 
sitting. In reply to a question why he could not 
come behind those of us who were in the circle and 
speak, he said: "It is necessary for us to be near 
the medium, as we draw force from her." A possible, 
but an unfortunate necessity. Had the medium 
stood on a chair or used a long jointed megaphone 
she could herself have made the voice come from 
the point whence it seemed to come — that is, if pos- 
sest of the power to produce the voice. 

We sat in the circle about one hour and a half, and 
as the medium was fatigued by travel, it was sug- 
gested by one of the controls that we close the sitting 
for the evening. Instructions were given us by the 
controls to have the room on the succeeding nights 
the same as this night, and to occupy hereafter the 
same seats. This voice was introduced to us as that 
of Dr. Hossack, a physician who, we were told, when 
on earth was a professor in Kings College, New York 
City. 1 This was in the early part of the last century. 
There seemed a trace of Mrs. French's voice in that 
of Dr. Hossack, but none of us could discover in the 

1 If I mistake not, this is the name of the physician who 
attended Hamilton after the fatal duel with Burr. Dr. 
Hossack claims to have been this physician. 



MEDIUM'S WEAKNESS 109 

voice of Red Jacket any semblance to the excep- 
tionally feeble voice of Mrs. French. We determined 
hereafter to watch carefully for this similarity, 
believing that in it we might get the key to the 
mystery. Mrs. French is a frail woman of about one 
hundred and seventeen pounds weight, seventy-two 
years of age, with a pulse that indicates quite a weak 
and irregular heart. Immediately after the sitting I 
felt her pulse, and found it sixty-eight to the minute, 
missing every third or fourth beat. It is not often 
that one hears two voices more unlike than that of 
Red Jacket and Mrs. French. 

Second Sitting, Tuesday, May 30, 1905: 

Immediately upon the arrival of Mrs. French and 
Mrs. Blank, we entered the seance-room, and were 
seated as on the first evening. It will be remembered 
that neither of these two women was permitted to visit 
the home of Mrs. Z. except at the time of the sittings. 

Before the lights were turned out, we all carefully 
marked the exact location of Mrs. French, and also 
trained ourselves to locate by the sound the distance 
and direction of a voice, observing how, when the 
head is turned in any one direction, the voice seems 
to proceed from a point toward the side of the room 
to which the head is turned. In that way a voice 
can be made to appear as proceeding from a point 



110 CONFEDERATES RULED OUT 

near the ceiling or a point near the floor, or to the right 
hand or left hand, or back of the one speaking. 

When Red Jacket's voice came, he directed, upon 
my suggestion, that the left hand of Mrs. French 
and the right hand of Mrs. Z. be joined. This made 
it more possible for Mrs. Z. to detect any movement 
of Mrs. French. It should be remembered that Mrs. 
Z. is not a novice in psychic investigation, and is 
keenly alert to the tricks of fake mediums. She 
made investigations with me some twenty-five 
years ago at seances with the famous medium, Dr. 
Slade, detecting some of his tricks, and also at my 
house with one of the Fox sisters and with others, 
down to the present time, and as previously re- 
marked, both Mrs. Z. and her daughter are very 
skeptical as to the spirit hypothesis, and hence are 
keen to suspect and detect fraud. 

The voice of Red Jacket appeared to be of the 
same timbre as the night before, and it seemed equalty 
high above the medium's head, about eight feet from 
the floor, and toward the sliding door between the 
two parlors. Our various tests again confirmed 
our partial conviction of the night before — that 
Mrs. Blank had nothing whatever to do with these 
voices. This we proved by talking to her and having 
her talk to us while the voices were speaking. Our 
tests also eliminated the theory that Mrs. F. left 



MEGAPHONE THEORY 111 

her seat or stood up. All of these possibilities had 
been thoroughly canvassed by us prior to the coming 
of Mrs. B. and Mrs. F. this evening. 

The theory of a megaphone manipulated by one 
hand of the medium, and the theory of the medium 
being an accomplished ventriloquist remained. To 
test these theories, I requested the medium to talk 
at the same time Red Jacket talked. If this could 
be done, it would help us also to locate the where- 
abouts of the medium when her hand was not being 
held by Mrs. Z. We were told by one of the voices 
that we must recognize the possibility of failures in 
this simultaneous talking because of the complexity 
and difficulty of the phenomena: "You do not fully 
realize/' said Dr. Hossack, " how exceedingly delicate 
is the organ [medium] we have to work with. She 
is very frail. Many times we have kept her in her 
body when even her physicians were sure that she 
would pass out. She is of very great importance to 
us as an instrument, and you must not ask us to 
take undue risks; and yet, on the other hand, we 
understand perfectly the value of the experiments 
that you are making, and will do everything in our 
power to help you make these experiments satis- 
factory. It is far better for her that she keeps quiet 
while the other voices are talking and are thus draw- 
ing upon her strength. We have here a band of 



112 SIMULTANEOUS TALKING 

medical experts who are watching closely the heart 
and mind of the medium, and we have also with us 
a chemical expert and a band of what you would 
probably call electricians, who are adepts in the 
manufacture and control of the vital currents. 
'It may seem to you an easy matter that the medium 
should talk simultaneously with us; but I assure 
you it is an extraordinarily difficult and dangerous 
thing; but I again assure you that we have come here 
to do all that it is possible to do to satisfy you of the 
genuineness and the significance of these phenomena." 
"Yes, yes/' said the medium. Her "Yes, yes" 
seemed to be simultaneous with the voice, yet we 
were not all absolutely certain of this. During the 
remainder of the evening, a score of times the medium 
seemed to talk at the same time that did the other 
voices. Some of us thought Yes, others of us were 
slightly in doubt, believing that there was a fraction 
of a second between the voices. Mrs. Z., who had 
Mrs. F.'s hand, was fairly sure that the voices were 
simultaneous. To us all it seemed very hard to be- 
lieve that any human being could have spoken in 
two different voices so nearly simultaneously and 
so often, without sometimes using the wrong voice; 
and also the conviction was constantly growing 
upon us, that the feeble, quiet, delicately refined 
voice of Mrs. F. could not have been produced by 



HEARING-TEST 113 

the same vocal organs that produced the strong 
masculine voice of Red Jacket even tho assisted by 
some mechanism. Another point to be tested was 
whether the defective hearing of Mrs. F. could catch 
our questions asked of Red Jacket when uttered 
in low conversational tones. We found that Red 
Jacket responded to our questions and remarks, 
no matter how low our tones were. This is a very 
important factor in the problem of determining 
the origin of these voices. 

As to Dr. Hossack's suggestion that the phe- 
nomenon is difficult to produce, when we come to 
think of it, what reason have we to conclude that the 
spirit world is a simple and easy state of existence? 
Analogy tells us the contrary. As we progress, the 
problems of life, of thinking, and of acting grow 
more and more marvelous and difficult. Water 
seems to us an easy substance to handle, but as we 
go upward to hydrogen and oxygen, and then back 
to atoms and electrons, and the combining of these 
in many ways — well, who cares for all this? We 
cut the Gordian knot and say " God directs/' Why 
may it not be that there, as here, God works through 
others these countless marvels, and that among 
these others are the spirits of the generations that 
have gone before, and that there as here the doing 
of things must all be learned in natural ways, and 



114 SPONTANEOUS GENERATION 

the human faculties developed gradually by exercise, 
so that there as here are all degrees of perfection and 
imperfection. This, of course, is only a guess, and 
yet our unbelief in the immensities of the universe 
leads us into countless absurdities. Only a few 
centuries ago, the sun, moon, stars, were believed 
to be only so many lamps that rose in the east and 
crossed the sky of the stationary earth to the west, 
and thus in childlike simplicity we settled it. Now 
we see immensities upon immensities, and com- 
plications untold. Suppose a hermetically sealed 
vial of radium is buried in the culture mixture of 
gelatin and beef tea, and life is evolved. Then 
what? Why, we have then only discovered a way 
in which life, that always existed, makes itself mani- 
fest. When we reach the end of the discoveries 
through our telescopes and microscopes and solar 
spectrums and chemical analyses, we have only 
scratched the borderland of the infinite immensities 
of the universe — the ocean of realities. 

The seance lasted this evening two hours, about 
one hour and a half being taken in talks by some 
half a dozen different voices. About fifty minutes 
of this time was taken in a talk of a most serious sort, 
by Red Jacket, urging the human race to brother- 
hood and to labor for others, insisting that each one 
makes his life harmonize with truth, and saying 



TESTING FOR VENTRILOQUISM 115 

that if we did this, we would be well advanced when 
we entered the other world, " for/' he declared, " all 
real growth springs out of a desire for the welfare 
of our fellows." 

Ventriloquism or a megaphone still seemed a 
possible explanation. Mrs. Z., who kept her hand 
during much of the evening on top of the hand of 
Mrs. F., declared that she could not detect the 
slightest tremor of her hand when the loud, vibrant 
voice of Red Jacket was most earnest. Nor could 
she detect the slightest movement that it would have 
seemed necessary for her body to have made in 
manipulating a megaphone. Of course, either of 
these hypotheses meant conscious fraud of a very 
depraved sort on the part of the medium whose 
personality and truthfulness imprest us more and 
more every time we spoke to her. She seemed an 
ideally refined, well-born, well-bred, and an ingenuous 
big-hearted woman. 

I urged Mrs. Z. and Miss Z. to study both women 
very carefully, during the day, by calling upon them, 
giving full play to the intuitive knowledge which 
women are said to have of womankind. Red Jacket 
talked very much about himself during the evening. 
He seemed to understand himself quite well, and it 
may be, after all, the Irishman wasn't far wrong when 
he said, " We get the best view of our lives after we 



116 TESTING MEDIUM'S ENDURANCE 

are dead." This seemed to be true of Red Jacket's 
post-mortem estimate of himself. 

Third Sitting, Wednesday, May 31, 1905: 

We added to our circle this evening Miss H., a 
celebrated author. She sat between Miss Z. and 
myself. The position of each sitter in the circle was 
otherwise the same as on the two previous evenings. 

When Red Jacket's voice came I told him that the 
theory of the megaphone or speaking-trumpet would 
be used by the critical public as a possible expla- 
nation, also that ventriloquism would be urged in 
explanation, and asked, if possible, to give us some 
experiments that would exclude both of these hypoth- 
eses. His answer was, "We will do whatever the 
strength of the medium will permit." In reply to a 
question whether he would not tell us his experiences 
upon his entrance into the other world at death, and 
also let us know what his present work was in the 
spirit-world, Red Jacket for fifty-five minutes, as 
nearly as I could judge by noting the striking of 
the clock in a near-by room, spoke in his usual loud 
masculine voice. 

My purpose in putting these questions to Red 
Jacket was to have him make a long speech, believing 
that such an effort would test greatly the physical 
endurance of Mrs. French, provided she produced 



« 



MEGAPHONE IMPOSSIBLE 117 

the voice. I have had much experience in judging 
of the carrying capacity of voices, and I have no 
doubt that the voice of Red Jacket as we listened 
to it this evening would easily have filled a hall with a 
seating capacity of two thousand people, while Mrs. 
F.'s voice, at its loudest, so far as I have heard it, 
would not fill a parlor twenty feet square. An ad- 
dress in a loud voice, lasting fifty-five minutes, is an 
exhausting strain upon the average strong man. 
Immediately after this speaking I felt Mrs. F.'s 
pulse, and found that it was as usual, weak and 
irregular ; but not noticeably so beyond what I had 
found it when she first came into the room. 

At the beginning of the seance Mrs. Z. was 
requested by Red Jacket to put her hands upon both 
of the hands of Mrs. F. This she did throughout 
the speaking. Under these conditions the mega- 
phone theory became wholly an impossible one. 
Mrs. Z. knows well the trick of a medium covering 
both hands with one, so as to make believe that both 
hands are being accounted for. She assured us that 
she covered fully each hand of the medium with her 
hands. Frequently at this sitting Mrs. F. replied 
in a natural voice, that certainly seemed at times 
simultaneous with Red Jacket's speaking. During 
the whole of the talking one of Mrs. Blank's hands 
was in Mr. Z.'s hand, and the other was held by me. 



118 MEDIUM'S BREATHING 

The sitting lasted one hour and forty minutes. 

Fourth Sitting, Thursday, June 1, 1905: 

Red Jacket invited me to sit immediately in front 
of the little table at which Mrs. French is accustomed 
to sit, and to place my hands on her two hands. 
I separated her two hands about twelve inches, so 
that the one hand of the medium could not possibly 
be mistaken for two hands, a trick that I have known 
to have been played again and again; a trick I 
myself have played successfully in a dark circle. 
I put my hands straight out from my body, so as to 
have the width of my body between the two hands. 
I again requested Mrs. F. to talk much. Her face 
could not have been more than twenty-four inches 
from mine. I could hear her breathe as well as talk. 
Red Jacket and the other voices talked freely, and 
Mrs. F. frequently spoke, seemingly at the same 
time. This test lasted probably ten minutes. It 
made it impossible for me to hold longer the mega- 
phone theory, and it is difficult to see how it was 
possible to explain the phenomena by ventriloquism. 

As nearly as it is possible for the ear to detect, 
Mrs. F. breathed naturally and talked in her usual 
low tones, at the same instant that the explosive 
voice of Red Jacket spoke. I noted particularly 
the breathing of Mrs. French. Her breath came 



A LAUGHING VOICE 119 

regular during the sentences of Red Jacket, whether 
they were long or short. 

"Sit back!" Red Jacket suddenly thundered in 
an explosive voice that seemed to shake the room. 
I sat back. He afterward explained that the heart 
of the medium had begun "to thump ," and that 
there was danger to her had the test continued longer. 
Just before the command, I was told I would feel 
the passing of a spirit over my face. I felt a cool 
breath of air. But this could have been produced 
by the medium, if she had so desired, for if you blow 
in the face of another at the distance of fifteen or 
twenty inches, the air will feel cold. 

After I had resumed my seat in the circle there 
came a strange, laughing voice, very loud, which 
seemed to come from the neighborhood of the door 
that led into the hall, or from out in the hall, some 
six or eight feet distant from the medium. This 
loud laughing voice was a curious phenomenon, and 
seemed to startle greatly the medium. 

The voice came at our request repeatedly, some 
ten times in all, each laugh averaging possibly a 
dozen ha-ha's, and varying from a deep basso to 
almost a treble. We were told by Red Jacket that 
this phenomenon was permitted to show the im- 
possibility "of the medium producing these voices 
through ventriloquism, as it must be manifest to all 



120 TEST OF VOCAL POWERS 

here that it is wholly beyond any conceivable com- 
pass of a female voice, and especially of so weak a 
voice as that of Mrs. French." The location of the 
voice seemed to change from place to place at our re- 
quest, sometimes it sounded as if near the floor and 
then up high near the ceiling, and then about six 
feet to the left of the medium and then to her right, 
and then back of her, and then again immediately 
in front of her. This suggested the art of ventrilo- 
quism together with the turning of the head from side 
to side ; but the utter physical weakness of the medium, 
and her exceptionally feeble voice added to the other 
tests that we had previously made, seemed almost con- 
clusive — if not altogether so — against this theory. 

At times when the laughing took place, Mrs. Z., 
at our request, took hold of both hands of the medium, 
and Mr. Z. and I held both hands of Mrs. Blank, so 
that the use of a megaphone was again wholly im- 
possible. It is well again to remember that for Mrs. 
F. to have produced the laugh that we heard, requires 
us to believe that she possesses extraordinarily well- 
developed lungs and vocal powers, while the truth 
is, her whole physical build is of a most delicate, 
feeble feminine model. It is as easy to think of a 
rabbit barking like a bulldog or bellowing like a 
bull, as to think of one physically made up as is 
Mrs. F. producing such a laugh. 



COLLECTIVE HALLUCINATION 121 

It should also be remembered that Mrs. Z. and 
Miss Z. and Mr. Z. and I are all seasoned investi- 
gators. I myself have been at hundreds of seances 
of all kinds. The reader can take it for granted 
that not one of our company could be stampeded 
or excited by the novelty or weirdness of this sort 
of experiences. 

During the evening there were female voices as 
well as male voices other than that of Red Jacket's. 
The phenomena continued until 9 : 30. The theory 
of collective hallucination it would be very difficult 
to apply to this series of phenomena. We did not 
expect the laughing voice; we had not heard that 
anything of the kind ever occurred at Mrs. French's 
sittings. On inquiry I found it had not been heard 
at the sittings in Buffalo or Rochester. We criticized 
it one to the other, talked about it, and talked to 
the spirit's personality, and he responded. We 
talked in a low voice also to the personality and were 
correctly answered. Mrs. French seemed very much 
amused at the voice, and often laughed in her quiet 
way, but so loud that we could all hear her laugh, 
seemingly at the same time that this loud laughter 
occurred. A transmitted subjective impression is 
likely to have marks of subjectivity, while this 
voice had all the marks of objectivity. After listen- 
ing to it on other evenings, I have no doubt whatever 



122 WHY FEW MEDIUMS 

as to the inapplicability of the collective hallucination 
theory. 

The following question was asked of Dr. Hossack 
during the evening: Why can not every one be a 
medium? Why does the spirit- world pass by some 
of our most excellent people, and choose sometimes 
unworthy ones for mediums? This was asked also 
to test the mental caliber of the personality who 
talked. The answer was: "Can you tell me why 
it is that copper is better than gold to cany the 
telegraphic message, or why is it that one material 
is better than another to hold the picture on the 
photographic plate, or why is it that radium is to 
be found in pitchblende and not in silver or gold? 
It is, my friend, a natural law, and it is not for us to 
quarrel with natural laws, but to conform to them. 
It is only by conforming to them that we can get 
anything from nature. " This talk was written 
down from memory several days afterward and may 
not be verbally correct, but the thought is. In 
nearly all other incidents in this series I wrote out 
the talks the same evening. 

Fifth Sitting, Friday, June 2, 1905. 

For about forty minutes no voices came. At all 
of these meetings Mrs. F. claims she sees, somewhat 
over our heads, a string of lights which at first are 



WEATHER CONDITIONS 123 

disconnected, and ; when conditions are perfected for 
the voices to come, the lights join. To-night she 
reported the lights as coming very slowly and as 
being very loth to connect. The weather conditions 
were reported unfavorable, as it was stormy, and 
the atmospheric pressure heavy. The voices, how- 
ever, finally came. Red Jacket delivered a talk of 
about half an hour in length, a well-sustained and 
connected talk. His addresses on these occasions 
are all markedly serious, no jesting or light talking, 
and they are remarkably free from errors in grammar. 
Sometimes he will ask for the proper technical word. 
The following is an outline of his talk as written 
down the day following by Mr. Z. at my request — 
it is as unlike as can be to conversations I have had 
with Mrs. French out of the seance-room: 

"Friends, I greet you! I wish to call your atten- 
tion to some of the conditions used by this medium 
in making communications possible. 

"Referring back to many moons ago, or as the 
Pale Face says, years ago, after my entrance into 
spirit-life, a number of earnest spirits anxious to 
help mortals by imparting more accurate informa- 
tion about the conditions of life here and how life 
on your side affected life here, held meetings in an 
assembly-hall here called 'The Hall of Truth.' We 
decided to search among mortals if we could find 



124 STRANGE EXPLANATION 

any sensitives suitable for the special purposes that 
we had in view. We found but three, and one of 
these soon passed over to this side. Later we found 
that the kind of sensitives we had selected would 
not answer. We needed a different and higher 
grade. We made other explorations, testing other 
mediums. Finally we found the medium we have 
been using now for so many years. 

"You understand the mind works through the 
brain. But to the mental force is added what may 
be called the vital force which is more closely con- 
nected with the entire nervous system. These forces 
produce what may be called electro-magnetism. Fol- 
low me closely. Now, we have found that there are 
some mortals born with a double spinal cord. This 
is very rarely a fact. This second spinal cord gener- 
ates the force we need for our particular purpose, 
that is, to produce the vibrations which you call 
' voices/ So delicate and important is the force 
produced by this second spinal cord, that a medicine 
man stands behind this medium all the time we use 
this force, and brings a pressure to bear at the end 
of the cord, near the base of the brain. This ex- 
plains why this medium says she feels a tapping 
going on at the base of her brain while we are talking." 

This curious explanation of the phenomena by 



"TYPICAL IRISHMAN" 125 

Red Jacket was drawn out to a considerable length, 
and became very technical. 

In answer to a question, Dr. Hossack replied that 
when he was practising medicine on earth, he read 
the report of a case of the finding of a double spinal 
cord. This was found in dissecting the body of a 
Scotchman in Berlin, Germany. It was then re- 
garded by the medical authorities as a mere freak, 
and little attention at that time was paid to it. 

Suddenly in the midst of our talk there broke in 
a voice with a very pronounced Irish brogue. He 
seemed to pass to the right and then to the left 
of the medium again and again, and kept up a rattle 
of quaint remarks for about five minutes. We were 
afterward told by Dr. Hossack that the object of 
this interruption was to get us less intense, so as to 
make it easier for the spirits to use the vital forces 
of the medium and of the members of the circle. 
This voice had all the quaint humor with which we 
associate the typical Irishman. It is quite evident, 
if these phenomena are what they claim to be, that 
national and individual characteristics perdure be- 
yond the Great Divide. 

Of course, the apparent change of location of the 
voice could be produced by a medium, if tricky, by 
turning her head as already indicated. The left 
hand of the medium was held most of the time by 



126 MEDIUM'S PULSE WEAK 

the right hand of Mrs. Z. Mrs. Z. reported that the 
medium seemed to be wholly passive, and more 
than usually weak — "as weak as a child." I felt 
the medium's pulse, and it was very weak and very 
irregular. 

Red Jacket's speech is often very picturesque. 
For example, this evening he was speaking to one in 
the circle who had just passed through much trouble 
and was discouraged. He said, "Your boat has 
rocked and your oars fallen out." Of a public 
character who was known somewhat for his bitterness 
of speech, he said, "He shot his words like arrows, 
and they wounded people. We should give health, 
not hurt. This is right. Say, friends, it is right." 

During the last sitting or two we have directed our 
attention more to the thoughts uttered by the voices, 
and have sought to compare them with the thoughts 
exprest by Mrs. French when not in the circle, 
striving to judge of the mental caliber of the medium 
and the mental caliber of the individualities as re- 
vealed through these voices. There seems to be 
as great a difference between the mentality of the 
medium and the mentality of Red Jacket, Dr. Hos- 
sack, and two or three others of the individualities 
revealed through these strange phenomena as there 
is in the voices. 

It is well constantly to bear in mind that a quick 



MORAL QUALITY OF TALKS 127 

accurate ear is rare. A close observer is not a per- 
sonage we meet every day. An investigator of 
phenomena of this kind should studiously avoid 
coming to any conclusions during his series of sit- 
tings, for an opinion is sure to bias his physical 
senses. 

And let me just here whisper to the critic: We 
should all learn to judge leniently the opinions of 
others, knowing that our own are sometimes in error. 

The moral quality of the talks at these seances is 
an element that is to be considered. Not once at 
the sittings this week has there been uttered a word 
of hate, an unclean word, or even a silly word. In 
fact experiences at a great majority of the seances 
I have attended with different mediums justify the 
testimony of Frederick Myers that the "spirit 
talks" are as a whole of an exceptionally exalted 
character. I find in my note-book this sentence 
which I jotted down from a prayer of Mrs. Pepper 
given at one of her meetings in Brooklyn, she sup- 
posed to be at the time in a trance : " We thank Thee 
for that divine and wonderful blessing men call birth, 
and we thank Thee for that equally divine and still 
more wonderful blessing which men have misnamed 
death." 

When dozens of sentences of this kind come from 
the same individual under various circumstances 



128 MEDIUM SICK 

it becomes increasingly difficult to believe that the 
soul that utters them is unclean or unspiritual. 

Sixth Sitting, Saturday, June 3, 1905: 

We made many efforts at the meeting to-night to 
have talking by the medium at the same time the 
"voices" spoke. The medium seemed very weak, 
having had, Mrs. Blank reported, a severe attack of 
heart trouble during the day, which was treated, 
she declared, by Dr. Hossack, the spirit doctor, 
they having " a seance in a dark closet in the board- 
ing-house." Mrs. Blank assured us that it is usual 
in these attacks of faintness and paroxysms of pain 
"to consult the spirit, Dr. Hossack," and his pre- 
scriptions are followed. 

The sincerity of both these women, and their 
innate refinement and nobility of character have 
steadily become more and more factors in the prob- 
lem that we have in hand. There has never been 
the slightest evidence of evasion or deceit. What- 
ever doubts we have of these ladies in their absence 
is wholly occasioned by the strangeness of the phe- 
nomena, and is dissipated in their presence, so 
straightforward are they, and simple, and perfectly 
ladylike in all their manners and talks. 

Red Jacket to-night gave us a talk on medium- 
ship. Among other things, he said : " Most mediums 



DANGEROUS DELUSION 129 

are mere playthings of their imagination, others, a 
smaller number, are the dupes of the intelligences, 
tricky, sometimes sportive, at other times malignant. 
It is a terribly dangerous mistake to think that there 
are no evil spirits. There are great hosts of them. 
They come at times without formal invitation of 
the medium or of the circle, and control to the hurt 
of the members of the circle and to the hurt of the 
medium." 

To revert again to Sir William Crookes's vibration 
theory of the universe: If it be true that we are 
living in the midst of vibrations from both sides of 
the grave, then it is not hard to believe that those 
spirits on the other side who are nearest the earth, 
that is those who are most earthly, would find it 
easiur to return, and may give us false communications 
altho the medium be altogether honest. Who then 
is safe? It is well to remember the words of the 
prophet: "The angel of the Lord encompasseth 
round about them that revere him, to deliver them." 
God Almighty is not dead, nor does He sleep. It is 
quite easy to believe that no mother ever so tenderly 
cared for her child as He for His children. But 
remember those words "that revere him" — this 
attitude of soul may make us recipients of help which 
otherwise could not possibly reach us. 

At our request the laughing voice came again. 



130 ODD SPIRIT-CONFESSION 

He spoke for the first time. He said that when he 
died he was certain his family was glad, for they 
thought they could get the insurance money that 
was on his life, and that their grief was hypocritical. 
He laughed bitterly at their deceit. When he looked 
at himself in the coffin and saw that he looked so 
natural he could not believe that he was dead. He 
felt so deeply the wrong done him by his wife and 
family that he did not speak, and if any spirit talked 
to him he just laughed. But he said that he now 
begins to feel that he was wrong in this, and that we 
must forgive, and "now I feel that my heart grows 
warm again and I now talk." Then he broke out 
again into a good-natured laugh, very loud, but free 
from the bitterness that marked it heretofore. At 
our request, which we made for test purposes, he 
laughed again and again, and the medium laughed 
in a natural, low voice. Mrs. Z. had both hands 
of the medium in hers on the table, and reported 
that she could recognize distinctly that the medium 
was laughing at the same time that the voice laughed. 
At times her laughing was so loud we could all hear 
it. The contrast between the two voices was very 
great — the one loud, vibrant, and even coarsely 
masculine, so loud that it could have been heard a 
hundred feet distant, the other feeble, ladylike, that 
could be heard by us only by close attention, and 



"DANGEROUS EXPERIMENT" 131 

then not at a distance of more than a few feet. 
Suddenly an explosive laugh, unusually loud, came 
seemingly immediately behind the medium. She 
jumped and cried aloud — we were all startled. The 
medium faintly called for water. I found that her 
pulse was beating very feebly, and exceedingly irreg- 
ular. It seemed for a while that we might have a 
corpse on our hands and our medium go to the beyond. 
If this was all acted, it was supreme acting and wholly 
inconsistent with the reputation of Mrs. F. and seemed 
vastly beyond her physical strength. 

After a while the seance continued. Dr. Hossack's 
voice assured us that the test was given to show 
how impossible was the assumption that the medium 
could produce the voice. And again he assured us 
that the experiment was extremely dangerous to 
the medium, and asked that this suffice, because of 
the medium's condition of extreme weakness, telling 
us that anxious as they are to satisfy us and satisfy 
the scientists, they must not risk further injury 
to the medium, and that as to this danger we must 
trust their superior experience and judgment. 

Mrs. Z. again assured us that in all these laughter 
scenes, when she held the medium's two hands, she 
did not feel the slightest vibration from the great 
lung effort required to produce these vocal explosive 
noises, but that she could feel the vibrations when 



132 POSSIBLE EXPLANATION 

Mrs. F. either spoke or laughed naturally as she 
frequently did. 

It was decided to give the medium perfect rest 
on Sunday, and hence no sittings were held until 
the following Monday. 

Seventh Sitting, Monday, June 5, 1905: 

Before the arrival of the medium and her escort 
we reviewed our past week's work. 

All possible explanations of independent voices 
seemed to us to be included in the following: 

1. Confederates from outside the circle. 

2. Confederates from inside the circle. 

3. Collective hallucination without hypnotism. 

4. General hallucination through hypnotic sug- 
gestion. 

5. Intentional fraud on part of medium through 
use of megaphone. 

6. False voices through use of various mouth 
devices. 

7. Ventriloquism. 

8. Unintentional fraud by the medium through 
trance as by alternating personalities. 

9. Outside intelligences making use of the vocal 
organs of the medium without the medium being 
conscious of the fact, or through vocal organs ex- 
temporized by the spirits. 



A SUMMING UP 133 

The following seems to be a reasonable summing 
up: 

1. Confederates from the outside during this entire 
series of sittings are absolutely excluded by the con- 
ditions. 

2. The only possible confederate from the inside 
is Mrs. Blank. Against this theory are: 

(1) Mrs. Blank's well-known character. 

(2) The fact that she always sits wedged in be- 
tween Mr. Z. and my self , our hands being joined. 

(3) Conversation is carried on with her frequently 
while the voices are speaking. 

3 and 4. Any one after reading the descriptions 
given of conditions, and of what has taken place 
during the past week and who yet can believe the 
theory of collective hallucination or hypnotism of the 
entire circle, I am quite sure would be capable of 
believing anything, and given the proper mental twist 
toward Spiritualism he would, quite likely, become 
the most credulous of Spiritualists. The belief or 
disbelief of persons of this class does not rest on 
reason or fact, but on preconceived ideas. 

5. All in the circle are sure that the megaphone 
theory has been absolutely excluded by the tests 
already made. 

6 and 7. The possibility of the medium either 
through the trick of ventriloquism or by the use of 



134 MEDIUM ALWAYS NATURAL 

mouth devices producing the various voices we 
determined further to test. 

8. The possibility of the medium, in trance, speak- 
ing in these different voices, and this without inten- 
tional fraud, we thought also needed further testing. 

As to this last theory including that of the second- 
ary personalities, the rapidity with which these 
changes take place, the naturalness of the medium 
at all times seem to exclude this hypothesis, and yet 
it deserves further investigation. After many of 
the sittings I talk with the medium about what has 
taken place, and she remembers all perfectly, com- 
menting intelligently upon the incidents. Also 
during the sittings Mrs. French often comments on 
what has been said and done, in a perfectly natural 
way, the same as the rest of us. Frequently I and 
other members of the circle ask her questions, and 
her answers are wholly natural. The reader must 
bear in mind that she is hard of hearing and each 
evening, frequently, we have occasion to talk to the 
outside intelligences, and often we do not raise our 
voices for them to hear us, but talk in our natural 
tones of voice, and sometimes purposely in lower tones, 
and are always understood by the intelligences. If 
we desire Mrs. French to know what we have asked, 
we are compelled to repeat in much louder tones of 
voice. 



NO MONEY MOTIVE 135 

As to intentional fraud of any kind we must bear 
in mind that there is no money motive for fraud. The 
medium was paid nothing for her trip to New York 
on this occasion. If there is deception on her part, 
there can be no motive for it except that of the grati- 
fication of vanity or a sense of power which is effective 
in many people. Otherwise the motive must be 
pure cussedness. But a morbid vanity is often a 
very strong motive in leading people to commit 
fraud along the mediumistic line, and should not 
be ignored. All of the appearances are against this 
theory, but still it should be borne in mind, for human 
nature is at times exceedingly untrustworthy, hence 
tests for supernormal powers should be insisted upon 
along the lines that involve something more than 
the good faith of the medium. 

I asked Red Jacket this evening how he could ac- 
count for the unfavorable opinion of the friend I sent 
to Buffalo to investigate this medium, he believ- 
ing fraud a likely explanation. 

"What is it," said Red Jacket, "that your friend 
says took place?" 

" He says at one of these sittings he had with Mrs. 
French no voices came for a long time, and that 
when finally a voice did come it explained the delay 
by saying that the band were helping a doctor at a 
certain distant prison who was ' passing out' [dying]. 



136 IS THIS FAIR 

The next day this friend in talking with a gentleman 
in Buffalo told him what the voice said. This 
gentleman remarked that Mrs. French knew all 
about that case, for she had told him about it prior 
to that meeting. Now this friend says that this was 
proof of deception on the part of Mrs. French." 

Red Jacket replied, "In what way? Is this fair? 
Mrs. French did not say one word at that time. 
We spirits did not get our knowledge from her of 
-the sickness of the doctor. We told at that seance 
simply a fact. We did not give the name of the 
doctor because some doctors do not like to have it 
known that they are sick. Is this the reasoning of 
science: because Mrs. French knew of this case — 
saying nothing about it — that therefore she is a 
cheat? I told you we did not get our information 
from her, and if we had got it from her mind, how 
would that have affected her honesty? What we 
said was true. We do not lie. But your friend is not 
fair, and does a great wrong by these guesses, and 
guesses are surely not science. 

"You say the woman, Miss H., is sick. We did 
not know until you told us. Sometimes we get this 
knowledge from the minds of those who are in the 
circle and sometimes from their words, sometimes 
from the mind of the medium, and sometimes from 
the spirit friends of the person who is sick. How is 



HINDERING "SPIRITS" 137 

it right to say because we tell something the medium 
already knows that the medium is not honest? 
This kind of treatment grieves us when we are trying 
to do good." 

"Now, Red Jacket/' I said, "we do not mean to 
wrong you, nor the medium, but are trying to get 
the exact facts. My friend does not mean to wrong 
the medium, but there are a great many cheats in 
the so-called medium business, and he was trying 
to get evidence that would shut out all possibility 
of fraud, even if the medium should desire to com- 
mit fraud. The evidence that is to convince the 
world must be of a nature that will not depend upon 
the honesty of the medium. You know what I 
mean. " 

"Yes, I think I do, and we are trying to give you 
such evidence, and we tried to give such evidence 
to your friend, but he did not help us. He was 
hard to us and to the medium in his thought. The 
influences that came from him were not helpful. 
He had no intention to hinder, but he did. Some 
people give out help, but your friend did not. We 
will see what we can do for you. The influences 
that come from this circle are helpful." 

"Would you tell us whether, in speaking, you 
make any use of the organs of the medium, or whether 
you organize your own vocal organs?" 



138 VOCAL ORGANS EXTEMPORIZED 

Red Jacket: "We make our own vocal organs. 
How is it possible for her organs to speak as I speak? 
Science and common sense should make that clear. 
How is it possible for her organs to laugh as that 
laughing voice laughs? You must use your reason 
as you do in other matters. The medium has come 
a great distance and she gets nothing for it; but she 
comes to help you and we come to help you. Now, 
you must be fair. You have had hold of the medium's 
hands and the squaw [Mrs. Z.] is now holding the 
medium's hands while I talk, and we talk often at 
the same time she talks, altho this is dangerous to her. 
This we do to give you proof that it is not she who 
talks, and yet will you say the medium does it?" 

" No, Red Jacket, we do not say the medium does it. 
What we wish is to get proof, not to convince our- 
selves, who now have met the medium, that she is 
honest, but proof that will convince those who have 
never met the medium." 

" What do you ask us to do? " 

"Would it be possible for the medium to talk if 
she put both of her hands in one of Mrs. Z.'s hands, 
and then permit Mrs. Z. to put her other hand over 
the medium's mouth?" 

"Now, this may seem easy to you, and I do not 
know how to make you understand that any act of 
suspicion like that increases manifold the difficulty 



NEW TEST DESIRED 139 

that we have of holding the medium's strength. 
We can not try this test to-night. It would not be 
safe. We will see whether we can do it to-morrow 
night. You don't seem to understand that the 
medium is exceedingly sensitive, and putting her 
under that kind of a test implies that she is a cheat, 
and this necessarily excites her nerves and affects 
her heart; but we will do what we can." 

Curious that unbelief should hinder the manifes- 
tation of psychic powers, but can we be sure it does 
not? Even the great Master, Christ, insisted upon 
this condition, believe. He could not do any mighty 
works in Galilee, why? Because of the unbelief of 
the people. Note the words could not. 

During this evening we had a singing voice which 
sang very pleasingly, and other new voices spoke. 

One voice reproved the thought that the spirits 
are to blame if in a circle errors are made or com- 
munications do not come readily. 

This seemed just. I do not find it well in a circle 
to dispute with the intelligences as it is apt to inter- 
fere with the results, just for what reason I am not 
altogether sure. Quite likely it affects the passivity 
of the medium. A spirit in another circle explained 
the imperfection in communication after this man- 
ner — 

Mediumship is not like a phonograph that Edison 



140 COMPARED TO TELEPHONING 

has so wonderfully invented, and that carries a 
message on it that is indelibly there, and repeats 
itself to you again and again. This is not so with 
the medium. You call up a friend on the telephone, 
and you ask him a question, and he speaks to you, 
and you say, "I can not understand a word you 
are saying." You finally call up central, and then 
you may not be able to hear any better. You do 
not think of blaming your friend, but you blame the 
medium, that is, the telephonic machine and wire. 
Your friend is all right, but the medium imperfect. 

Eighth Sitting, Tuesday, June 6, 1905: 

The voices were numerous to-night. The laughing 
voice again came at our request, and gave us much 
evidence to prove that it was independent of the 
medium. This lasted perhaps fifteen minutes. It 
was a natural human laugh, but the laugh of a 
physically powerful man. This laughing voice always 
arouses the risibilities of the medium, and she 
laughed at it heartily, so that it afforded us a con- 
stant opportunity of contrasting the timbre of the 
two voices. It is as hard to think that the weak deli- 
cate voice organs of the medium could produce that 
laugh as — to change a little the comparison I pre- 
viously mentioned — to believe that a lark could 
imitate the bellowing of a bull. If we heard the 



A SUPREME EFFORT 141 

barking of a dog in a room in which we were con- 
vinced that there was no other living thing than a 
canary bird, it might puzzle us to account for the 
phenomenon; but we would not hesitate to say that 
the canary's vocal organs did not produce that sound. 
There was evidently a supreme effort of the in- 
telligences in control to convince us that the medium's 
vocal organs did not produce these independent 
voices. But if not the medium's, whose vocal organs 
did produce these sounds loud enough to fill a large 
hall? I thought of every possible explanation. 
The only other persons present were Mr. and Mrs. 
and Miss Z. and Mrs. Blank, myself, and the medium. 
As I have already repeated several times, Mrs. 
Blank was always wedged in between Mr. Z. and my- 
self, and all in the circle had hands joined, and 
Mrs. Blank was laughing and talking with the rest 
of us. Then, she is a woman whose history is well 
known, and she is deeply interested in investigating 
these phenomena, as deeply interested as are the rest 
of us. Had the phenomena taken place in the medi- 
um's home or in the house of any friend of hers, or of 
a profest and easily fooled Spiritualist, we might con- 
clude that in some way a confederate may have slipt 
in, but here a confederate was simply impossible — ut- 
terly, absolutely impossible. The performance under 
the circumstances was a very puzzling demonstration. 



142 PROF. JAMES'S THOUGHT 

Against accepting the spirit hypothesis spring up 
to the mind a score of difficulties. Of course, that 
threadbare one, why should spirits be engaged in a 
work of this kind? Why not help us to solve some 
great practical social problem, as a government 
problem, a great invention? The same old stone 
wall against which many of us have often before 
butted our heads. It is evident, if these are spirits, 
their ways are not our ways. Possibly it is true, 
as Professor James of Harvard says, they may be 
under some tremendous inhibitions. At any rate, 
we do not know enough to dogmatize for or against 
the spirit hypothesis. Let us keep gathering facts 
and keep our heads level and our feet within a reason- 
able distance of the earth, and largely let the research 
be carried on by experienced investigators. 

In answer to questions, the voices talked much 
about the dwellings, occupations, etc., in the spirit- 
world, and then told how to live "in the life that 
now is" in order that our progress in the beyond 
may be rapid. The burden of the talk was that we 
should avoid selfishness in its many forms on earth, 
that we should live lives of self-denial and of service. 
These talks were of an ennobling character and the 
philosophy behind them all indicated clear logical 
thinking of no mean order. 



SPIRIT WORLD SUPERIOR 143 

Ninth Sitting, Wednesday, June 7, 1905: 

This evening Mrs. Z. asked the control whether 
her father was present. "No," was the reply, "we 
will send a message for him if you so desire." 

"Yes, do." 

"How can you send a message to a distant spirit?" 

"Do you think that you in your world can send 
messages to a distant one and we can not? Believe 
me, the spirit- world is far ahead of your world in the 
arts and sciences and in all manner of conveniences. 
Why, my friends, yours is the shadow, and this is 
the real world." 

Mrs. Z. said she felt a hand on her head. She 
asked if any one in the circle had touched her. The 
medium put both of her hands on Mrs. Z. 7 s hands. 
Red Jacket said, " That was your father who touched 
you." Mrs. Z. said, "Father, are you here?" A 
voice different from any we had yet heard replied, 
"Yes, my child, I am so glad to have you hear me 
talk to you and know that I talk to you once more. 
We know all you think and feel and do, and are 
helping you every way we can." 

Then the voice indicated certain help to be given 
to a sick relative at a distance. There are many 
curious elements in this psychic problem, and that of 
receiving help from the dead is not the least curious. 



144 SKEPTICISM REASONABLE 

Paul Cams says, " To call upon the forces of the 
dead to help us is to become beggars, mendicants." 
Does not that depend upon how we receive the aid? 
I may expect men on earth to do all my work for 
me, and by thus depending upon them become a 
parasite and helpless. But there are ways of getting 
help from our fellow men that are not demeaning to 
us. We are to help others. No man is to live for 
himself. Now, may we not apply this also to help 
extended from the other world? Why should I 
be any more demoralized or demeaned by getting 
assistance from a doctor who is out of the flesh than 
by getting assistance from a doctor who is in the 
flesh? There is nothing in the clothing of flesh and 
bones that will alter the essentials of this dependence. 

Skepticism at the present stage of psychic inves- 
tigation is reasonable, but we must see straight and 
argue straight and fair. Am I a beggar or mendi- 
cant if I call upon God for help, any more than is 
a drowning child when he calls upon his father or 
mother for help? God is to me Infinite Truth, 
Infinite Holiness, Infinite Love. He is the embodi- 
ment of my highest ideals. When I seek God and 
submit to Him, I submit to Infinite Reason, and 
there is nothing demeaning to ourselves in such 
submission. 

It may be thought by some to be religious cant. 



WATER-TEST URGED 145 

but it seems to me these two things are the most 
important to be learned of all things in the universe: 
(1) How to cast all care literally and absolutely upon 
Infinite Reason and Infinite Goodness, that is, upon 
God; (2) To give all our ability to the helping of 
others. It is a hard thing to learn, but w T ell worth 
the learning, that His care extends to the minutest 
ephemera, as well as to the biggest planet in the uni- 
verse; surely nothing can be demeaned by this care. 

I listened attentively to the voice, that claimed 
to be Mrs. Z.'s father, to see if I could detect any 
resemblance to the medium's voice, especially as 
this voice was mild and was within the capacity 
of her vocal organs and her physical strength. If 
the medium had so desired she, it is reasonable to 
believe, under the circumstances, could have pro- 
duced this voice had she sufficient cunning and deceit, 
and the much practise necessary. 

I this evening urged upon the control what I call 
the water-test, that is, that the medium should hold 
a measured quantity of liquid in her mouth, and then 
have the spirit talking to continue. The medium 
was to take from a measuring-glass which I brought 
with me two tablespoonfuls of water, colored by a 
coloring-matter known only to myself, and her hands 
were to be held and we were to note whether any 
independent talking took place. If such talking 

IO 



146 "NOT TO-NIGHT" 

would take place, then a light was to be struck and 
the water emptied from the medium's mouth into 
the measuring- glass. This of course, if carefully 
done, would be strong proof of the presence of out- 
side intelligences. 

We were told that, unfortunately, the medium 
daring the day had had a bad turn with her heart, 
suffering very much, so that the controls reported to 
us that it would not be safe to make the test, but 
that they would be glad to do it at some time later 
if the medium would rally sufficiently to make it 
wise to take the risk. 

I assured Red Jacket that I was very anxious to 
make the test. To help allay any fear that might 
be in the mind of the medium I said: "As to the 
coloring-matter which I have here, I will drink some 
water thus colored before the medium takes it, so 
that she may know that it is safe. I will tell her 
immediately before the test what is in the water, 
and I will see that she takes only two tablespoonfuls. 
Now, if this can be done with both hands of the 
medium held, and it be made known to scientists, 
it can not but be regarded as a test having evidential 
value." 

"We will do it if we can/' replied Red Jacket, 
"but not to-night— we dare not try it on account of 
the medium's condition. Even this talk of a test 



MEDIUM SICK 147 

makes her heart beat irregularly. We must talk 
of something else." I was sorry we had not carried 
on the conversation in a low tone of voice — lower 
than the medium's ability to hear. 

The after-talk was mainly on the mission-work 
of spirits in helping, as the control claimed, feebly 
developed souls that come over to the spirit side of 
life. 

There was the usual variety of voices. The medium 
talked considerably in her natural voice — as before, 
seemingly at the same time the other voices were 
speaking. 

Tenth Sitting, Thursday, June 8, 1905: 

The medium was said to be sick and conditions 
unfavorable. 

We sat for an hour but no voices came. 

Eleventh Sitting, Friday, June 9, 1905: 

Red Jacket spoke eloquently of the wrongs of the 
Redman, but claiming that notwithstanding these 
wrongs, a powerful band of his people were seeking 
to do the Palefaces in this country only good. " We 
know/' he said, "that no other work is worthwhile 
either in your world or in the spirit-world — nothing 
but good to others. This is the only way spirits can 
grow from one state to a higher." Red Jacket 



148 "WHAT IS IMAGINATION?" 

greatly deplored the terrible war raging between 
Russia and Japan, as it sent over to the spirit- world 
so many who were violently forced out of life and 
hence immature as spirits. He was asked if he had 
ever seen Washington in spirit-life. "Oh, yes/' 
he replied, "many times. I have often been in his 
home here. He has a beautiful dwelling, and he is a 
lofty spirit, doing a great work in teaching." 

Red Jacket abruptly asked me, "What is imag- 
nation?" After my answer, he continued, "Much 
of what you call imagination is the result of spirit 
influence, good or evil. A large proportion of your 
thoughts and impressions come from above." I 
urged again that we have tests of two voices speaking 
at the same time. This was done apparently in a 
number of cases; but only briefly and not absolutely 
satisfactorily. Again Red Jacket protested against 
these tests, insisting that such tests compelled " cross- 
currents" in the medium. He gave an exhibition 
of the power of his voice in contrast with that of 
the medium, by suddenly speaking unusually loud. 
I have seldom heard a more powerful male voice 
than this exhibition revealed. As quickly as the 
light was turned up I felt Mrs. French's pulse. It 
marked forty-eight and was extremely irregular. 



UNSATISFACTORY TEST 149 

Twelfth Sitting, Saturday, June 10, 1905: 

The medium was weak, seemingly exhausted. 
Mr. M. and his wife were guests this evening — invited 
by myself. They sat between Miss Z. and Mrs. Z.; 
the rest of us sat as on previous evenings. 

The voices were of a considerable variety. 

This evening we gave the water-test, but the me- 
dium was in so feeble a condition that nothing satis- 
factory resulted. The controls suggested that when 
the medium grew stronger another effort be made. 
They assured us they fully understood the importance 
of the test for evidential purposes. 

This concluded this remarkable series of sittings 
in New York. 

A SUPPLEMENTAL SITTING AT ROCHESTER 

Some weeks after Mrs. French and Mrs. Blank 
returned from New York to her home in Rochester 
I arranged for a seance in Rochester. My object 
was, if possible, to try again the water-test. This 
arrangement was made through a prominent lawyer 
in that city, a man well known, but not a Spiri- 
tualist. This friend is deeply interested in the inves- 
tigation of these mysterious phenomena. 

We met Mrs. French at a private house of my 



150 WATER-TEST AGAIN 

friend's selecting. I requested Mrs. Blank, who was 
to be present, to coach Mrs. French in holding 
two tablespoonfuls of water in her mouth and breath- 
ing at the same time through her nostrils. We hoped 
in this way to allay her nervous excitement which 
in our previous tests in New York was said to have 
been largely the cause of the fluttering of her heart 
during the trial. The conditions were wholly under 
my control the same as they were in New York. 

The room was on the second floor, and the keys, 
after locking the two doors, I placed in my pocket. 
I bought the matter for coloring the water on my 
way to the house, and brought with me my own 
measuring-glass. No one but myself knew the color 
of the liquid I would use. I took into the seance- 
room the glass tumbler containing the two table- 
spoonfuls of water, and then placed in this glass the 
coloring-matter and permitted the medium to taste 
it, so as to relieve her mind as to any thought or any 
fear of it being unpleasant. 
The plan to be pursued by us I outlined as follows: 
A candlestick with a candle in it was placed on a 
table at the side of one of the members of the circle, 
and when the control gave the word, this gentleman, 
who is a dentist in Rochester, was to light the candle; 
then I was to give to the medium the liquid in the 
presence of all the members of the circle, holding the 



TEST SUCCEEDS 151 

glass in my hands, the medium was to take all of the 
liquid in her mouth; I was to place the empty glass 
on the floor between my feet; the light was then to 
be extinguished, and immediately thereafter Red 
Jacket, if possible, was to speak in his natural voice, 
and then the candle was to be relit and the colored 
water was to be ejected from the mouth of the 
medium into the measuring glass which I was to 
hold, and we were all to see whether the same amount 
of liquid had been emptied from the medium's 
mouth into the glass as was in it at the beginning 
of the seance, and whether it was of the same color. 

The four persons — besides my friend, Mrs. Blank, 
Mrs. French and myself — who made up the circle 
were all intimately known to my friend. 

The plan of procedure as described above was 
carried out to the letter, and Red Jacket spoke within 
a minute after the liquid had been taken into the medium's 
mouth and the light extinguished. It should be re- 
membered that I held the glass to her mouth before 
the light was extinguished, and after the voice came 
the candle was relit and the medium emptied the 
liquid from her mouth into the measuring- glass which 
I held in my hand. The liquid emptied into the glass 
I found to be of the exact amount that I gave her, 
and was in the judgment of us all of the same color. 

This test was a perfect one with only a single 



152 'FLY IN OINTMENT" 

drawback which did not occur to me, I am sorry to 
say, until after I left the house. A very sly, tricky 
person might have had an empty bottle or glass 
concealed about her person and, as soon as the light 
was extinguished, emptied the liquid into this glass 
and then, after the speaking and before the light was 
relit, put the liquid back into her mouth. Had one 
of our number held both of the medium's hands 
while the room was in darkness, the test would have 
been complete in every part as far as I can see. This 
concealed-glass theory is an exceedingly unlikely 
one under all of the conditions. But it must be 
regarded as a possible one, and should be guarded 
against in any future tests. At some future sitting 
I will try to guard against this unlikely, but possible 
hypothesis. 



AFFIDAVIT OF A. W. MOORE, SECRETARY OF THE ROCHESTER 

ART CLUB 

" I have attended the sittings with Mrs. French of this city 
from time to time during the past twenty years. I am 
positively convinced of the genuineness of the manifestations 
of spirit voices which occur through her mediumship. 

" I have, during years, tried by every device that human 
ingenuity could suggest to discover fraud on the part of 
Mrs. French but without avail. 

" I have known Mrs. French, during some of her stances, 
when I happened to sit next to her, to place her mouth on 
the back of my hand and keep it there while ' Red Jacket/ 
her principal control, was speaking. 



TRUMPET TALKING 153 

" And I have many times heard Mrs. French conversing 
while 'Red Jacket's,' or some other control's voices, have 
been addressing the circle." 

"A W.Moore." 
Sworn to, before me, this 19th day of April, 1906. 

Mary Jeanette Ballantyne, 

Notary Public. 
Rochester, N. Y. 



2 



OTHER "INDEPENDENT VOICE " PHENOMENA 

The usual form of independent voices is what is 
called the "trumpet." This form lends itself readily 
to the trick of the ventriloquist as the vibrations 
made by some voices, especially when the trumpet 
is held in the hand or against the face of the medium, 
are imparted to it. If the other end of the trumpet 
is placed to the ear of the sitter the voice seems to 
come from the trumpet. It is a pretty trick played 
with a great many variations. Even when the lips 
are tightly closed, or the hand of the sitter placed 
over the mouth, or the mouth plastered shut, the 
sounds may still be heard. The muscles of the throat 
can be moved by some people in such a way that, 
altho not a sound passes the lips, a vibration will 
take place in the trumpet if the trumpet is placed 
against these muscles of the throat, or even against 
the bones of the face as when the trumpet is placed 



154 "WIDOW'S MITE" MEDIUM 

against the ear. The voices when thus made are 
easily detected by an expert, for they are muffled and 
indistinct. 

These explanations do not, however, prove that 
all trumpet-talking is fraudulent. If the spirit 
hypothesis is true, an outside intelligence may use 
the organs of speech of the medium either in whole 
or in part in conveying his message to the sitters. 

The following three cases are worthy of note as 
typical of many others that have come under my 
observation. The third one was witnessed by Pro- 
fessor Hyslop and carries with it his testimony. 

Case 1 is that of trumpet-talking through the 
medium in Brooklyn at whose circle the "Widow's 
Mite " 1 incident took place. 

These sittings were always in the semi-dark. I 
attended several scores of these seances largely under 
such test conditions as I would suggest. Neces- 
sarily they could not, in the semi-dark, be wholly 
satisfactory. The evidence of genuineness rested 
on (1) the attested character of the medium, (2) the 
fact that she was not a professional medium, that is, 
one who received pay for her sittings ; (3) the nature 
of the communications. My conclusion was that 
while there was reason to believe that some of the 

1 See "Widow's Mite and Other Psychic Phenomena." 



EX-GOVERNOR'S EXPERIENCE 155 

information came to the medium through telepathy, 
and that sometimes the personality that used the 
trumpet was the secondary personality of the me- 
dium, yet there remained sufficient to justify the 
conclusion of Prof. William James, of Harvard, 
that the spirit hypothesis was the easiest explanation. 

Case 2. An ex-Governor of one of the more 
prominent States of the Union whose name is well 
known throughout the land and with whom I have 
been acquainted for more than twenty years, wrote 
me several letters giving an account of a remarkable 
experience which he and his wife had recently. 

He permits me to give the complete case, but 
requests withholding of his name as he does not 
want to stir to activity "the funny men of the press 
who know it all and who can solve the most com- 
plicated psychic phenomena with a wave of the hand." 

The Governor says he is not a Spiritualist but he 
is greatly mystified by this experience. Six months 
before the experience, his daughter died, and his 
wife was profoundly grieved over the loss. This 
constant grief was wearing upon the mother. 

When stopping at a hotel in a city distant from 
his home accompanied by his wife he happened to 
hear of a Spiritualist medium who was visiting in 
a town not far from where the Governor was staying. 



156 AN INTERESTING CASE 

He telegraphed for her to come at once to his hotel. 
Upon her reaching the hotel the Governor had her 
sent up immediately to his room. Now to quote 
from his letter : 

"It was ten o'clock in the morning and the sun shone full 
into the room. I told the medium that we wished to see 
what she could give us in the way of spiritual communica- 
tions. She had with her what she called a trumpet, and 
which was of considerable length when jointed together. 
This was laid on the table with the large end toward my 
wife who was told to put this end to her ear. The medium 
did not sit near the trumpet or table. In a few moments 
we heard a voice in the trumpet which sounded to our amaze- 
ment like the voice of our dead daughter. It claimed to be 
our daughter. She told us the particulars of her death, 
including some incidents which we feel sure no mortal knew 
but ourselves. I was exceedingly puzzled and watched the 
medium's lips closely. They did not seem to move in the 
slightest. I requested her to hold her lips tightly together. 
She offered to fill her mouth with water. This seemed to 
me cruelly suspicious, and unnecessary, and I did not insist 
upon it. For a long time the conversation was kept up. 
It was upon the whole the most extraordinary event I ever 
experienced. Is there any explanation for this other than 
spirits? Ventriloquism does not seem to me to be a possible 
explanation unless one can talk with lips tightly closed." 

I wrote the Governor many questions, cross- 
examining him closely, but have not been able to 
shake his statement of what took place. He is a 
man of serious thought, of thorough honesty, one 
to whom jesting or deception in an affair of this kind 
is unthinkable. 



PUZZLING 157 

In reply to a recent letter the Governor wrote to 
me under date of November 16, 1906: 

" The seance to which my letters referred was in open day- 
light, and the voice of the alleged spirit, which sounded like 
that of my daughter, was so distinct and loud that it could 
be easily heard by every one in the room, but it always 
seemed to be in the trumpet except once, when Mr. C.'s 
little girl who passed out of life several years ago seemed to 
speak as if sitting on her papa's lap. Our daughter sang 
songs — one of these was of her own composition. 

"The medium's mouth appeared to be tightly closed and 
she offered to fill her mouth with water, but, as I wrote to 
you, I did not apply that test, not thinking it worth while. 
The large end of the trumpet rested on the back of a chair, 
while my wife held the other end, but did not have to hold it 
to her ear except now and then, as generally we could all 
understand every word that was said. The medium at no 
time during the sitting touched the trumpet, but was eight 
or more feet away from it, and no one of the company was 
near the trumpet except my wife." 

I have witnessed many phenomena of so-called 
independent voices. Much fraud is connected with 
this kind of phenomena, especially when they take 
place in the dark. But I have witnessed, under 
test conditions, phenomena of this class which have 
puzzled me just as it puzzled the governor I have 
quoted. In the governor's case what was said is 
not of so much importance, for tricky mediums may 
get hold of facts which will puzzle any of us if 
they are suddenly sprung upon us, especially under 
mysterious, ghostly surroundings, for many a brave 



158 WEST VIRGINIA CASE 

man who does not believe in ghosts is nevertheless 
afraid of them. 

Case 3 is thus vouched for by Professor Hyslop 
in a letter published in connection with a full report 
in The Progressive Thinker (September 26, 1906), 
Chicago, 111.: 

" To the Editor : 

" The account as published in the Omaha World-Herald 1 
of recent date is true with the exception of a few newspaper 
alterations that do not affect the substance of it. The man 
who wrote it [David Abbott] is an expert investigator 
and well acquainted with me. His statement of facts is 
conservative and careful. I witnessed many of them, and 
you can rely on the article as representing the facts correctly. 

"James H. Hyslop." 

The editor speaks of this same David Abbott as a 
magician who has a wide reputation in psychic 
circles, and as one who has made a life study of the 
tricks of the professional medium. 

Mr. Abbott describes the medium as the wife of 
a humble farmer, a woman who has been the devoted 
mother of fifteen children, and has never been twenty 
miles from her home more than once or twice in her 
life. She lives in an obscure little village called 
Braderick, Ohio — a spot very far removed from the 

1 It was reprinted in The Progressive Thinker, Sept. 26, 
1906. 



CAREFUL PRECAUTIONS 159 

beaten track, the only mode of access is by a little 
ferry across from Huntington, W. Va. 

The name of this woman is Mrs. E. Blake, and she 
has been a wonder to her friends for fifty years. 

Mr. Abbott says : 

"I determined to make an investigation on such lines as 
would entirely remove the possibility of any kind of trickery 
being employed. I will say, for such readers as may not 
know, that I am a performer of the tricks used by the hun- 
dreds of spirit mediums that travel over the land. I am 
thoroughly familiar with the various 'systems' by which 
they gain the information that they give their subjects, 
and I determined to entirely remove the possibility of any- 
thing of that kind being used in this case. I was known 
to no one in that part of the country with the exception of 
Mr. 'X.' who merely knew my name and residence. He 
knew nothing of any of my relatives, nor of the towns where 
they resided. I was entirely satisfied that this gentleman 
was of too high a character to attempt to learn anything of 
my private history and reveal it to this woman. Besides 
I found that gathering information about persons at a distance 
of a thousand miles is a very up-hill business. Nevertheless, 
to make assurance doubly sure I determined to take a gentle- 
man with me, entirely unknown to any one in that region 
and to take him under an assumed name. The gentleman 
I selected was Mr. George W. Clawson of Kansas City, Mo., 
who, like myself, is a member of the American Society for 
Psychical Research. I did not reveal to him where he was to 
go (with the exception that it was within one hundred miles of 
Cincinnati) until two days before starting. I then merely 
wrote him that we would go to Huntington, but gave no 
names. I did not tell him the lady's name or town until 
we arrived in Huntington and had started for her village. 
Just before leaving Omaha I wired Professor Hyslop in New 
York when we were to meet in Huntington. I went by way 



1G0 VISITOR INCOGNITO 

of Kansas City where Mr. Clawson was. I asked him to 
choose a name to travel under, and he did so — the name 
was C. E. Wilson. 

" Mr. Clawson registered at the Florentine Hotel under the 
name of C. E. Wilson, and I introduced him to Mr. X. under 
that name. It was the first time that I had met Mr. X. 
and as he had only known me since April I was certain that 
even he was in the dark as to my history. I had carefully 
instructed Mr. Clawson in the method of asking questions 
so as to reveal no information between lines. As he was an 
attorney he proved an apt pupil and I was soon certain I 
need have no fears on that score. I was present at all of 
the sittings and heard every word, so that any information 
the voices gave I knew must be obtained by some means 
outside of the ordinary channels." 

Mr. Abbott then proceeds to give a long account 
of several sittings that he and his friend Mr. Clawson 
and later Dr. Hyslop had with this woman. He 
says, "We found the woman sitting by her window 
in a willow rocker with her crutches by her side." 
She hesitated at first to give Mr. Abbott and his 
friend sittings because of her feeble condition, 
having just recovered from a six weeks' illness. The 
first three sittings were held in Mrs. Blake's home 
and the last one was given across the river at the 
office of Mr. X. where we had taken Mrs. Blake to 
have a photograph taken. He says that in the 
sittings Mrs. Blake used a trumpet, one end of which 
he himself or Mr. Clawson would put to his ear, and 
the other end Mrs. Blake would hold sometimes 
in her hand, or sometimes to her own ear. These 



CORRECT ANSWERS 161 

sittings were in the light. Sometimes the voices 
were so loud that they could be heard frequently 
at the distance of one hundred feet. "The infor- 
mation received was most marvelous. We received 
in all nineteen correct names, while we received none 
that were wrong." There was evidence that satisfied 
Mr. Abbott and his friend Mr. Clawson that the 
intelligences talking did not receive the information 
through fraudulent means. Mr. Clawson's correct 
name was given; Mr. David Abbott's name was 
given, by what claimed to be spirit friends. 

The following indicates the kind of conversation 
carried on: 

"I took the trumpet, but as the words sounded weak, 
I surrendered it to Mr. Clawson. Instantly the voice began 
loud and strong, so that I could easily distinguish the words 
where I sat. Mr. Clawson said, 'Who is this?' The voice 
replied, 'Grandma Daily.' Mr. Clawson then srid, 'How 
do you do, grandma? I used to know you, didn't I?' The 
voice replied, 'How do you do, George? I want to talk to 
Davie.' I spoke from the outside of the trumpet and said, 
'I can hear you, grandma.' I then said to Mr. Clawson, 
'Keep your position. I can hear from the outside.' . . . 
After the voice of my grandmother gave a daughter's name, 
it continued with these words: 'Davie, I want you to be 
good and pray, and meet me over here." With the exception 
of the words, 'over here,' in place of the word 'heaven,' 
these were the identical words which my grandmother 
spoke to me the last time I ever heard her voice. 

" Mr. Clawson now continued, ' Grandma, tell me the name 
of Davie's mother.' The voice replied 'Sarah.' He said, 
'Yes, but she has another name. What is it?' The voice 
11 



162 "I AM HERE" 

said, ' How do you do?' Mr. Clawson said, ' That is not what 
I mean.' The voice then s.id, 'Abbott.' 'This is all 
right,' continued Mr. Clawson, 'but I call her by another 
name when I speak of her. What is it?' The voice then 
plainly said, 'Aunt Fannie.' This was correct. 

" At this instant the loud voice of a man broke into the 
conversation. It was low in pitch, was a vocal tone, and had 
a weird effect. The voice said, 'How do you do?' Mr. 
Clawson said, 'How do you do, sir; who are you?' The 
voice replied, 'Grandpa Abbott,' then repeated hurriedly 
a name that sounded like 'David Abbott,' and then the 
voice expired with a sound as of some choking or strangling 
and went off dimly and vanished. My grandfather's name 
was 'David Abbott.' 

" After this Mrs. Blake asked to rest a few moments and 
turned in her chair so as to use the other ear. While resting 
I decided to offer a suggestion to Mrs. Blake indirectly and 
to note the result. Turning to Mr. Clawson, I said, 'It is 
strange that those we desire to talk to so strongly do not 
come. Now your daughter, whom you would rather talk 
to than anyone, seems to identify herself, but it seems strange 
to me that she did not give her name correctly.' I did this 
intending to convey to Mrs. Blake the idea that the name 
which on the first evening was understood to be 'Edna' 
was not correct. 

' ' When Mr. Clawson next took the trumpet the voice of a 
girl spoke and said, 'Daddie, I am here.' He said, 'Who 
are you?' The voice replied, 'Georgia/ which was correct. 
Mr. Clawson then said, 'Georgia, is this you?' 'Yes, 
daddie,' she replied, ' don't you think I know my own name? ' 
He then said, ' I thought you did, Georgia, and could not 
understand why you would not tell me. Where do we live, 
Georgia?' The voice replied, 'In Kansas City,' which was 
correct. 

" The voice then continued, ' Daddie, I am so glad to talk 
to you, and so glad you came here to see me. I wish you 
could see my beautiful home. We have flowers and music 
every day.' Mr. Clawson then said, 'Georgia, tell me the 



SCARCELY MIND-READING 163 

name of the young man you were engaged to.' The name 
pronounced was indistinct, so he asked the voice to spell it. 
The letters A-R-C were spelled out and then pronounced 
'Ark/ which was correct. The gentleman's first name was 
'Archimedes,' and he was called 'Ark.' After this the 
voice spelled the complete name. Mr. Clawson then said, 
'Georgia, where is Ark?' The reply could not be under- 
stood. Mr. Clawson then asked, 'Is he in Denver?' A 
loud 'No! No!' almost vocal was heard, and then the 
words, 'He is in New York.' I was informed afterward 
that this was correct. 

" The voice then said, ' Daddie, I want to tell you something. 
Ark is going to marry another girl.' Mr. Clawson said, 
' You say he is going to be married?' The voice said, 'Yes, 
daddie, but it's all right. I do not care now. Besides, he 
does not love her as he did me.' I will mention the fact 
that since our return from West Virginia, Mr. Clawson has 
received a letter from the gentleman in question, announcing 
his approaching marriage. 

" Mr. Clawson then asked the voice what grandmothers 
were there, and she replied that Grandmother Daily and 
Grandmother Abbott were with her. He then said, 'Are 
these all?' The voice said, 'Do you mean my own grand- 
mother, my mother's mother?' Mr. Clawson replied, 'Yes.' 
The voice then said, 'Grandma Marcus is here.' This 
was correct. Mrs. Marquis had died shortly before this, and 
her grandchildren always pronounced her name as if it were 
spelled 'Marcus.' 

"The reader will please to remember that Mr. Clawson's 
name had so far been given to no one in that section of the 
country. That, as no one knew he was to be there, he could 
not have been looked up, and as he did not himself know 
where he was going, trickery could absolutely play no part in 
the names given him. I was present at all sittings, and there 
was no chance of any error. Yet these names came just as 
readily for him, and as correctly as they did for me whose 
name had previously been known to one resident of Hunt- 
ington. 



164 MUST EXPLAIN FACTS 

" At this point the loud voice of a man spoke up and said, 
'I am here. I want to talk to Davie.' I took the trumpet 
and the voice said, 'Davie, do you know me?' I said, 
'No, who are you?' The voice replied, 'Grandpa Daily.' 
The voice then said, ' Tell your mother I talked to you, and 
tell your father, too.' Mr. Clawson took the trumpet 
quickly from me, and said, ' Hello, Grandpa, I used to know 
you, didn't I?' The voice replied, 'Of course you did.' 
Mr. Clawson (whose name had so far never been given), said, 
'Tell me who I am?' The voice replied out loud, distinct, 
and very quickly, 'I know you well; you are George Claw- 
son.' " 

Mr. Abbott had many more experiences of this 
kind. He winds up his description with the follow- 
ing comment: 

" Those who would give a theory that will explain these 
phenomena must advance one that will explain the facts. 
The theory that it is trickery may apply to some of the facts 
given to me, since one person in that country knew that a 
person of my name lived in Omaha, but it is very improba- 
ble that trickery was resorted to. This theory does not ex- 
plain Mr. Clawson's case. 

"People living a thousand miles from me could not know 
that I intended to take an unknown person with me; then 
they could not go and look up his name and history minutely. 
That it is guess-work on the part of the medium, or chance, 
is simply a silly statement. How many readers could have 
guessed that George's second name was Clawson, how many 
could have guessed and given correctly nineteen names 
while giving none that were wrong? The information given 
by the voices was always correct. 

" Do I believe in what is known as Spiritualism and is ex- 
ploited by the hundreds of spirit-mediums over the country? 
Emphatically no! I am too familiar with the methods of 
trickery with which they produce their illusions, for that 



BELIEF— KNOWLEDGE 165 

I produce most of their feats for purposes of amusement 
myself. 

"Do I believe in Mrs. Blake? That is another question. 
The information which her voices furnished is entirely beyond 
the possibilities of any system of trickery. There can be no 
question as to this. That she possesses some power not 
possest by ordinary mortals must be conceded. 

"Is it really spirits, or is it merely some freak power of 
the mind? Each must judge for himself. The lady solemnly 
assures me that it is the voices of our dead. I said, 'Mrs. 
Blake, do you really believe it to be the dead talking?' She 
replied, 'I do not believe, I know. Belief is one thing, but 
knowledge is another.' 

" What is my opinion? It does not matter. It is not my 
place to express an opinion; it is only my place to relate the 
facts with sacred accuracy. Each reader must form his 
own opinion of the meaning of the facts. I most solemnly 
assure the reader that I have given them accurately. There 
is no need of explanation in this case, for the truth is sufficient 
without any additions or exaggerations. 

" It seems like a fairy story, yet it is a true story, I myself 
have seen these wonders. 

"I only know that far away, hundreds of miles over the 
hills on the banks of the Ohio River, there sits an elderly 
and frail woman in a chair, and kings could well afford to 
trade their power for hers." 

Professor Hyslop, with his usual caution, is not 
ready to have his own experiences on this occasion 
given to the public. There are other experiments 
of this class which he desires to make, and when 
these are completed, quite likely, he will print them 
and these in full with his comments in one of the pub- 
lications of the American Society for Psychical Re- 
search. 



V 



TYPICAL CASES OF SEVERAL CLASSES OF PSYCHIC 

PHENOMENA 

Ruskin , says Holman Hunt, confest that he had changed 
his disbelief in immortality to belief, in the following conver- 
sation : \ 

Holman Hunt : You must remember that when last we 
met you had given up all belief in immortality. 

Ruskin: I remember it well. What has mainly caused the 
change in my views is the unanswerable evidence of Spiritu- 
alism. I know there is much vulgar fraud and stupidity con- 
nected with it, but underneath there is, I am sure, enough to 
convince us that there is personal life independent of the 
body ; but with this once proved I have no further interest in 
the pursuit of Spiritualism. 1 

Class I 

Indicating thought transference other than by one or 
more of the five senses. 

Case 1. The private secretary of the Bishop of 
London wrote under date of February 3, 1906: "The 
bishop desires me to say the enclosed is a correct 
account of an experience by him." 

The following is the account enclosed: 

"I was sitting in my room one morning, when I was told 

1 Daily Chronicle, London, December 5, 1906. 
166 



BISHOP OF LONDON 167 

that a woman wanted to see me. I was very busy, and almost 
said at first, ' Oh, I'm too busy to see any one this morning,' 
but I thought and said, ' No, I have made a rule never to 
refuse to see anybody, in case it is some one in trouble. So 
I said, 'Let the woman come upstairs.' She came and the 
first thing she said to me was this : ' I was going to ask you 
whether you can find a use in your work for £1000? ' I said, 
' It is the very thing I have been wondering all the morning 
how I was to get.' I showed her exactly what I was going 
to spend the £1000 on, and the whole scheme was carried out." 

Case 2. A young lady in New York City — I will 
call her Miss N. — of refinement and social standing 
and who is wholly nonprofessional, possesses rare 
telepathic power. She consented last winter to come 
to the house of a friend of mine and submit to a series 
of tests. On the evening there were present this 
friend (Mr. A.), his wife and daughter (Mrs. and Miss 
A.), Miss N., a gentleman physician, and myself. 
It was agreed that I was to designate the tests to be 
made. This I did always by writing. This pre- 
caution was taken because I find that sensitives 
sometimes have developed abnormally the sense of 
hearing. The writing of each test was done after 
Miss N. had gone out of the room to the further end 
of the building. In all the tests, as Miss N. entered 
the room, each of us was to think of the wording of 
the request, and in the first five tests Mrs. A. and 
Miss A. joined their hands around the sensitive's 
body, but were careful not to touch her, and in the 



168 ACCURATE TELEPATHY 

remaining six tests they simply followed immediately 
behind her. "Complete success" in the report that 
follows means that without the slightest hesitation 
the psychic went immediately to the object and did 
what was requested. 

Tests 

1. A lead pencil was put under cover cloth on the piano 
and was to be found. Complete success. 

2. Black cup on the mantel to be touched. 

Complete success. 

3. Electric button at the door to be touched. 

Complete success. 

4. Take small picture from a shelf on which a mirror was 
placed, and remove picture to mantel. Complete success. 

5. To sit on a certain big chair in an adjoining room. 

Complete success. 

6. To pick up a crystal and carry it to the center of the 
room. Complete success. 

7. Pick up a certain visiting-card in the card basket on 
table. Complete success. 

8. Pull together the portieres between the two rooms. 
First attempt she went between the two rooms and there 

stopt, but did net put the portieres together. Second 
attempt did it correctly. 

9. Pull pin out of piano cover. Complete success. 

10. Take crystal from stand and put it on top of bookcase. 

Complete success. 

1 1 . Take pencil from table and card from basket and write 
on card. Complete success. 

In this series of tests there was no possibility of 
any clandestine seeing, as through a keyhole, or 
other crevice, and all care was taken by the experi- 



CROOKES'S EXPLANATION 169 

menters not to look toward the object to be touched 
or moved. The young lady when asked said that 
she had not the slightest theory in explanation. 
She simply followed her first impression. "If I 
think, it all goes from me, and I can do nothing." 

Sir William Crookes's explanation of phenom- 
ena of this kind is that thought makes vibrations, 
and these vibrations, after the manner suggested by 
wireless telegraphy, are caught by any human brain 
receiver which may be attuned to the brain trans- 
mitter. 

People in sympathy with each other tell us that 
they at times have sat together by the hour and tho 
they scarcely have uttered a word yet they will feel 
that somehow they have communed with one an- 
other. We all remember the story that is told of 
Tennyson once visiting Carlyle, and that these two 
men sat together in front of the great fireplace and 
smoked for three hours, and in all that time uttered 
only now and then a word or two; at last when 
Tennyson rose to go Carlyle said to him, "Come 
again, Alfred, we have had a grand time," and he 
meant it. 

I have had the tongues of sensitives respond to 
my thinking as if they were the echoes of my mind. 

Case 3. A few weeks ago I sent a lady acquain- 



170 CURIOUSLY CORRECT 

tance, Mrs. EL, to Mrs. Margaret Gaule, a well-known 
professional psychic in New York, of whom Mrs. H. 
had never heard. Mrs. H. is almost an entire stranger 
in New York City. 

At once Mrs. Gaule said to her: "You were born 

in Jamaica, in the West Indies, and your name is ." 

Both of these facts were correct. Then Mrs. Gaule 
continued, "There is a spirit here who says that she 
is your mother, and as a test she tells you that on 
your left hand (her hand was covered with a glove) 
is a gold ring. This ring is a double ring — on the 
inside of it is my wedding ring. This you have had 
fastened on the inside of the large ring in a way that 
can not be seen when it is on your finger as it is now. 
The large ring was given to you by your grand- 
mother." This was a curiously correct fact — the 
inner ring is a very small gold ring, and it is soldered 
inside of the larger gold ring. The inside ring could 
not be seen except when the ring was taken off the 
finger, nor could the large ring be seen through the 
glove. However, the large ring was not a present 
from a grandmother, but was a present from a 
grandaunt of Mrs. H.'s. One of those suggestive 
slips which these psychic intelligences make. 

Then Mrs. Gaule said: "Your grandmother also 
is here — your grandmother on your father's side. 
She says that you are wearing a brooch pin that 



CONCEALED LETTER ANSWERED 171 

belonged to her." Mrs. H. tells me that she did not, 
at the time, know that the brooch pin that she had 
on had belonged to her grandmother, but when she 
went home she discovered that this was a fact. 

All of the facts here told were in the conscious 
mind of the sitter with the exception of the previous 
ownership of the brooch, and that fact had quite 
likely been known, but forgotten. Of course, this 
possibility does not disprove the spirit hypothesis. 

Case 4. George L. Seabury, a gentleman residing 
in Brooklyn and concerning whose trustworthiness 
I have made careful inquiries, went to a medium, 
Mrs. May S. Pepper, with a written note containing 
two questions addrest to his deceased father. 
This note he placed in an envelop which he sealed, 
and kept in his pocket during the entire sitting. 
He told no one of his intentions. The medium 
said a spirit was present, giving the name of the 
deceased father correctly, and then gave a direct 
answer to each of the two questions, which had not 
left the sitter's pocket. 

In explanation of this, it is quite certain at that 
moment the sitter was thinking of the name of his 
father and of the questions in his pocket and the 
medium may have caught the thought vibrations 
correctly. 



172 WIRES GET CROSSED 

However, if this theory of explanation be correct 
any name could be enclosed in a letter, the name of 
a living or dead person, or a wholly fictitious name 
could be handed the medium and the answers might 
fit, as the information might come from the mind 
of the sitter in the circle. On the other hand, it is 
not absurd to believe that spirits may communicate 
with one another and with us by thought vibrations, 
and that mediums thoroughly honest get thoughts 
that come from the sitters confused with thoughts 
that come from foreign intelligences, they them- 
selves not knowing the source of the information. 
The wires get crossed — a theory that might explain 
possibly much of the weakness, the absurdities, and 
contradictions in spirit communications. 



Class II 
Indicating a Clairvoyant Power. 

A gentleman who was connected with the Univer- 
sity of Chicago, and who was a fellow in Semitics 
in the University, is a clergyman, editor, and teacher, 
and has forty years behind him to back his discretion, 
sent me a sealed letter which he desired me to submit 
to a medium as a test. Receiving very many re- 
quests of this kind, I threw the letter into a pigeon- 



WILL TELEPATHY EXPLAIN 173 

hole, with a little slip pinned to it showing from 
whom it came. I did not know, at the time, that 
this gentleman had had much experience as an in- 
vestigator and was an expert in his preparation of 
tests. 

One evening after returning home I made up my 
mind to visit Mrs. Pepper with an envelop which I 
myself had prepared. It occurred to me to take 
also some envelops that I had received. It was so 
dark in my study that I could not distinguish the 
envelopSj so I took one from about the middle of 
the pile in the pigeon-hole and unpinned the little 
identification slip that I was in the habit of putting 
on this class of letters that came to me, and threw 
this slip on my study table. In my dressing-room 
I saw that this envelop had no writing whatever on 
it but had in each corner ^two faint pencil-marks, 
and that the flap of the envelop, tho sealed, was not 
protected with sealing-wax. Over the place where 
the four flaps of the envelop overlapped I dropt 
heated sealing-wax, and stamped this wax with an old 
seal. I could not find out from whom this envelop 
came, altho I tested it by microscope and by bright 
light, nor did I know anything about what was in it. 
I told no one of my intention of visiting Mrs. Pepper 
that evening, nor anything whatever about the 
letters I intended to take with me. In fact I had 



174 WHO IS PEARL 

not thought of attending a seance at her house until 
after I reached home at 6:30 o'clock that evening. 

Entering the house I took my seat alongside of the 
table on which I placed my two envelops. The 
second envelop the medium took in her hand was 
the one that I had taken from my pigeon-hole and 
had sealed before leaving home. The medium at 
once said, "I hear the name Horacum or Horaca 
[the names I give are fictitious, but the real names 
are as strange names as those I here give] and I hear 
'Pearl/ 'Pearl.' Whose letter is this?" [There were 
fifteen or twenty persons in the room at the time, 
and nearly every one had placed a letter on the table.] 
I said, " It is mine/' recognizing it by the seal. " Well, 
who is Pearl?" I said, "I do not know, is Pearl 
the name of a person?" "No/' after a moment's 
hesitation, " it is not the name of a person. Mother 
Horacum says, 'Tell Eton that the pearl breast-pin 
was not stolen; it was lost.' You do not know 
what is in this letter. The man who sent you this 
letter is named Eton, and he lives in the West. This 
letter is addrest to a spirit named Horacum or 
Horaca, and was sent to you by a man named Wilton." 
After a while the medium told me the name of 
the man was Eton Wilton, which I found to be 
correct on my return home, by looking at the writing 
on the identification slip which I had thrown on my 



MIND-READING EXCLUDED 175 

desk. Without opening the letter I returned it to 
Mr. Wilton at the University of Chicago. 

In reply Wilton wrote to me as follows : 

" I give you the facts — you can see the value of the points 
involved. 

"Mrs. Horacus, an old schoolmate of mine, died some 
fourteen or fifteen years ago, leaving one little daughter. I 
have never seen the latter, nor have I had any communication 
with her. She lives a thousand miles from Chicago in the 
Far West. Last fall this daughter visited an aunt — on 
her father's side — unknown to me — I do not even know her 
name — and was presented with a beautiful pearl pin. Shortly 
after she returned home the pin was missing. 

" Some two or three weeks ago a relative of hers mentioned 
the above facts in a letter to me, and jocularly suggested 
that I find it; knowing that I was making some psychic in- 
vestigations. I made no reply: have not in fact written to 
this person since. 

" There were points in your story of the ' Widow's Mite' 
concerning which, as you know, different theories could be 
entertained — hence I concluded to try this experiment 
through you. Neither I, nor the party who wrote me of it, 
could have any further knowledge of the missing article, 
beyond what I have stated. You did not know what the 
sealed question was. Ordinary ' mind-reading ' or ' un- 
conscious memory/ ' sub-conscious mind ' would be pretty 
well excluded. Moreover, I have seen clairvoyants clearly 
affected both by the personality of the bearer of a letter and 
that of the writer. I wanted to test a medium at that point 
in my own way. You can judge of the result. 

"Being familiar with many tricks of the l fakers' I prefer 
when a sealed letter goes out of my possession to have it so 
prepared internally that any tampering will betray that it 
has been tampered with — yet it will appear perfectly simple — 
apparently *open to investigation,' on the outside. Of 



176 WELL-PREPARED ENVELOPE 

the several precautions used on the letter I sent you, the note 
was written on hard paper folded so that the writing was on 
the inside, the two faces turned together when folded. Two 
thicknesses of paper was between it and the enclosing envelop, 
like enclosed specimen. The writing was partly in colored 
ink, partly in copying pencil, not moistened, and written 
lightly, so that to the eye it would at first appear as ordinary 
pencil-writing. Any moisture on this would at once bring 
out the real color of the copying pencil, and excess would 
dissolve it. A thin strip of white tissue was passed through 
the folded note, two ends glued to the envelop. Had the 
envelop been opened by any means the person drawing out 
the note would have broken the tissue. As this tissue was 
previously treated with a chemical I could tell by a simple 
test if any one had succeeded in replacing or duplicating the 
slip. On the inside flap of the envelop there was writing in 
dry copying pencil just above the gum, where it would be 
at once reached by any liquid into which it might be dipt, 
or by any liquid that might be put upon it so as to be able 
to read the writing inside. 

"In some of my tests I write in Semitic characters, being 
pretty sure that the average medium would be incapable of 
reproducing these characters if she endeavored to substitute 
in the envelop and so cover up her tracks. This precaution 
is, however, strengthened by writing on the inside of the 
envelop opposite the writing on the flap. The application 
of alcohol or other liquid would change the color of the writing, 
and much would cause the characters to run into each 
other. 

" I am not a spiritualist, but have been investigating the 
subject for some years. The question which I asked Mrs. 
Horacus reads : ' Your daughter has lost a beautiful pearl 
pin recently given her by her aunt. Can you tell her where 
it is?'" 

The reader will observe that Mrs. Pepper got 
correctly the name of the mother, which was wholly 



"MRS. PEPPER CLAIRVOYANT" 177 

unknown to me, and that the question was concerning 
a pearl pin and that the pin had disappeared. I 
knew nothing whatever as to the question, nor is it 
at all likely that any person this side of Chicago 
knew it, as Mr. Wilton assures me he told no person 
that he intended writing me this question. 

Mr. Wilton, in one of his letters, observes con- 
cerning this test : " Personally I do not think the 
result so far goes beyond the demonstration of Mrs. 
Pepper's clairvoyance. The old question of the 
explanation of clairvoyance does not seem to me to 
be affected by the results of the test. I could wish 
that the results had been more specific — that some- 
thing more about the pin had been discovered, and 
its precise whereabouts." 



Class III 
Indicating a mechanical power in thought. 

A scientific friend, Dr. Veeder, living in Lyons, 
N. Y., a writer on scientific subjects of wide rep- 
utation, and a man of extended experience, has 
succeeded within the past few weeks in making what 
seems to be a photograph of thought or brain vibra- 
tions. Under his direction, several persons of tested 

psychic power, each put a hand above and below 
12 



178 DR. VEEDER'S PHOTOGRAPHY 

a sensitive photographic plate that had been pur- 
chased by himself and had not been removed from 
its original covering, and they all fixt their thoughts 
upon a certain object for two minutes, and then the 
plate was developed by Dr. Veeder and the form of 
the object was found photographed on the plate. 

Dr. Pierce, a gentleman residing in San Francisco 
and whom I have known for several years, has made 
even a more successful experiment of a similar kind. 
Alone in his own room, he secured a photograph of 
a child's face on a plate while the plate was yet in 
the packing in which he originally purchased it. 
He himself did the developing, also in his own room. 

Various examples of what is called spirit photog- 
raphy I described in my former book on this subject. 1 

If we apply Crookes's thought vibratory theory, 
a possible explanation may be given of at least a 
part of these photographic phenomena. As we all 
know, many stars have been discovered by photog- 
raphy of which the light vibrations could not be 
detected by the naked eye. The waves made by 
thought can not be detected by the eye, but may be 
caught by the photographic lens. Much more ex- 
perimenting is needed along these lines before any 
satisfactory generalization is possible, either for or 
against the spirit hypothesis. 

lu The Widow's Mite and Other Psychic Phenomena." 



GHOSTS OF THE LIVING 179 

Class IV 
Indicating the power of the human ego to manifest 
itself objectively at a distance. 

Case 1. A well-known gentleman in New York, 
a man whose veracity would be questioned by no 
one who knows him, a physician of standing, also 
an editor and publisher of reputation — gives me 
his " word of honor" as to the truth of the following 
personal experience which, after having told it to me 
the second time, he wrote out at my request. 

The following is the narrative written by his own 
hand, and from which I have quoted on a previous 
page of this book : 

" Some years ago I passed through the following experiences, 
which I will relate in the order they came to me. I had 
for a number of months been engaged in work that required 
concentrated mental effort, with little opportunity for 
physical exercise. I was not, however, conscious of any 
mental tension, and was in what I considered perfect physical 
health. 

" One day sitting at the dining table, my right hand and arm 
fell absolutely helpless at my side. I left the table, and going 
into another room, found that there was no indication of life 
in hand or arm. Pinching my flesh I found there was no 
sensation resulting, and apparently no circulation of blood. 
I had been for a number of years a believer in the control of 
mind over body, and so made a mental effort to overcome 
the peculiar condition. In a short time the blood was cir- 
culating freely through the veins and I could use both the 
hand and arm just as well as ever. The following day, 



180 STRANGE EXPERIENCES 

seated at the dinner table again, everything seemed to grow 
dark about me, and I could see people's bodies simply as 
vague forms, and their voices reached me as tho from a long 
distance. Yet my mind was perfectly clear, and with a 
strong mental effort I succeeded in regaining my normal 
condition. A day or two later, while looking at a newspaper, 
lights flashed before me, and still later frequently during the 
day waves of light seemed to circle about my head. By 
this time I made up my mind that it was necessary that I do 
something, and decided to give up my work and take a 
vacation for a few weeks. I was then living in a New Eng- 
land city. I left it, and coming to New York, took rooms at 
a hotel for a week's time. The first night, after going to 
bed, almost like a flash of light, I lost control over all physical 
motion, and my body was devoid of all sensation, yet my 
mind was clearer perhaps than it had ever been in my life. 
The first thought that came to me was, that I had been 
paralyzed, and for a few minutes I was filled with a sense of 
fear. This, however, passed away, and I began making a 
conscious mental effort to see if I could use my body. After 
what seemed to be almost two hours, I succeeded in getting 
full use of my muscles again. I do not know whether the time 
mentioned is right or not, as I did not look at my watch to 
note the time; but after coming out of this condition, I 
lay very quietly for perhaps fifteen minutes,- thinking it 
over, and wondering what it could mean, and then fell 
asleep and slept nearly all night. 

"I had no other experiences during the week worth relating, 
but on Saturday night took the cars for Jacksonville, Florida, 
arriving there near noon. Tuesday evening of that day 
I retired early, saying to some friends who were with me 
that I would join them at breakfast the next morning at 
nine o'clock. They waited for me until almost ten, and then 
decided that I had probably gone to take a walk, and that 
they had better take their breakfast. Some time after eleven, 
one of my friends who was a little uneasy concerning me, 
came to my room and knocked loudly on the door. I can 
remember an indistinct sensation, but the knocking sound 



SEEMED DYING 181 

seemed to be away off in the distance. By and by it grew 
plainer, and I could hear his voice calling to me, and in a 
little while I was able to respond. I got up and drest 
myself. I had no clear thought as to what I had passed 
through during the night. It was as when one has dreamed, 
and then awakened and tried to recall the dream, and the 
greater the effort, the more the memory eludes him. I can 
best describe it in this way ; and yet there was a certain con- 
sciousness of having passed through some very wonderful 
experience. 

" Thursday afternoon, somewhere about two o'clock, I left 
Jacksonville for Palatka on one of the Saint John's River 
steamers, my friends going with me. Within fifteen minutes 
after the time I went on board the steamer, my feet began 
to grow numb and to lose sensation. I would walk for a 
little while with my friends, then walk up and down the deck, 
trying through mental effort and exercise to throw off the 
numbness, but this I was unable to do, and by the time we 
reached Palatka, nearly seven o'clock at night, the numbness 
had gotten into my ankles. We sat down to dinner, and after 
dinner, — perhaps about eight o'clock, I excused myself to 
my friends and went to my room. Undressing, I made an 
examination of feet and ankles, and found that they were cold, 
without any circulation or sensation. After a little while 
I put out the light and retired, but no sooner had I done this 
than the action became more rapid, and I could feel it almost 
as tho it was a creeping sensation moving up my legs. I 
got up and lit the gas and went back to bed; but instead of 
lying down as I had done before, I sat up partially in bed, 
with pillows arranged in such a way as to make me comfor- 
table. In a comparatively short time, all circulation ceased 
in my legs, and they were as cold as those of the dead. The 
creeping sensation began in the lower part of my body, and 
that also became cold. There was no sensation of pain or 
even of physical discomfort. I would pinch my legs with 
my thumb and finger, but there was no feeling, or no indica- 
tion of circulation of blood whatever. I might as well have 
pinched a piece of rubber so far as the sensation produced 



182 APPEARS AT A DISTANCE 

was concerned. As the movement continued upward, all 
at once there came a flashing of lights in my eyes and a 
ringing in my ears, and it seemed for an instant as tho I had 
become unconscious. When I came out of this state, I 
seemed to be walking in the air. No words can describe 
the exhilaration and freedom that I experienced. No words 
can describe the clearness of mental vision. At no time in 
my life had my mind been so clear or so free. Just then I 
thought of a friend who was more than a thousand miles 
distant. Then I seemed to be traveling with great rapidity 
through the atmosphere about me. Everything was light, 
and yet it was not the light of the day or the sun, but, I 
might say, a peculiar light of its own, such as I had never 
known. It could not have been a minute after I thought of 
my friend before I was conscious of standing in a room where 
the gas-jets were turned up, and my friend was standing 
with his back toward me, but suddenly turning and seeing 
me, said, 'What in the world are you doing here? I thought 
you were in Florida,' and he started to come toward me. 
While I heard the words distinctly, I was unable to answer. 
An instant later I was gone, and the consciousness of the 
things that transpired that memorable night will never be 
forgotten. I seemed to leave the earth, and everything 
pertaining to it, and enter a condition of life of which it is 
absolutely impossible to give here any thought I had con- 
cerning it, because there was no correspondence to anything 
I had ever seen or heard or known of in any way. The wonder 
and the joy of it was unspeakable, and I can readily under- 
stand now what Paul meant when he said, 'I knew a man, 
whether in the body or out of it I know not, who was caught 
up to the third heaven, and there saw things which it is not 
possible (lawful) to utter.' 

" In this latter experience there was neither consciousness 
of time nor of space; in fact, it can be described more as a 
consciousness of ecstatic feeling than anything else. It 
came to me after a time that I could stay there if I so 
desired, but with that thought came also the consciousness 
of the friends on earth and the duties there required of me. 



SEEMED DEAD 183 

The desire to stay was intense, but in my mind I clearly 
reasoned over it, whether I should gratify my desire or return 
to my work on earth. Four times my thought and reason 
told me that my duties required me to return, but I was so 
dissatisfied with each conclusion that I finally said, ' Now I 
will think and reason this matter out once more, and what- 
ever conclusion I reach I will abide by. I reached the same 
conclusion, and I had not much more than reached it when 
I became conscious of being in a room and looking down 
on a body propt up in bed, which I recognized as my own. 
I can not tell what strange feelings came over me. This 
body, to all intents and purposes, looked to be dead. There 
was no indication of life about it, and yet here I was apart 
from the body, with my mind thoroughly clear and alert, 
and the consciousness of another body to which matter of 
any kind offered no resistance. 

" After what- might have been a minute or two, looking at 
the body, I began to try to control it, and in a very short time 
all sense of separation from the physical body ceased, and I 
was only conscious of a directed effort toward its use. After 
what seemed to be quite a long time, I was able to move, 
got up from the bed and drest myself, and went down to 
breakfast. 

" For some three months after I passed through similar ex- 
periences, and almost any time during the day or night these 
would come if I did not resist them, but never in exactly the 
same way as they came that night, usually within a very 
short time I would have no physical sensation one way or 
another, and during these three months, I had to make what 
might be called a constant mental effort to retain physical 
existence. Frequently in the years that have come and gone 
since then, have I passed through these experiences, but 
never like the experience I had in Palatka, as I have never 
gone wholly beyond the things pertaining to this earth. 
I may add here that the friend referred to having been 
seen by me that night was also distinctly conscious of my 
presence and made the exclamation mentioned. We both 
wrote the next day and relating the experiences of the 



184 LETTERS CROSSED 

night, and the letters corroborating the incident crossed in 
the post. 

" I know that many people may think that the statements 
recorded here are simply the result of an active imagination 
or perhaps a dream, but they are neither the one nor the 
other. If the whole world was to rise up and say that tfrere 
was no life after one left the physical organism, it would not 
make one particle of difference in my mind, as I am absolutely 
certain that I have been as free from my physical body as 
I ever will be, and that my life apart from it was far more 
wonderful than any life I have ever experienced in it. I 
want it to be distinctly remembered that the body was in no 
sense sick or diseased, nor was I, in so far as I know, unduly 
mentally tired or worn out. I had, as I said, been concen- 
trating my mind a great deal, but there was no sense either of 
physical or mental depletion. 

" While I feel I could explain how the experiences I passed 
through were brought about, yet I do not know that this is 
at all necessary to the statements I have made. I am willing 
at any time to make affidavit to the truth of these experiences, 
and I have since met with one or two people who have had 
very similar. 

" Previous to having passed through these things, I believed 
in continuity, but I had no abiding certainty concerning it. 
At the present time there is never a doubt as to its verity 
that troubles my mind. I have the absolute assurance that 
when the something which we call death comes, it will only 
mean a new and larger and more complete life. I do not 
expect to convince any one of the truth as I see it merely by 
making these statements, because I have the feeling that one 
must realize these things for himself; but when once such 
realization comes, there is thereafter no power on earth that 
can disturb it." 

While I have every confidence in the sanity and 
integrity of the writer of this extraordinary expe- 
rience, having long known him, I can not but regret 



CLERGYMAN'S EXPERIENCE 185 

that the two letters narrating his experience, and 
which crossed each other in transit, were not pre- 
served. 

Case 2. A clergyman residing in New York City, 
and secretary of one of the leading missionary societies, 
informs me of the following personal experience: 

Some time ago he was on a visit several hundred 
miles distant, leaving his wife at home. One night 
he awoke, and was startled to see, standing at his 
bedside, his wife. He cried out: "My dear, why 
have you come? " She thereupon stooped and kissed 
him on the forehead, and then moved to the foot of 
the bed and said: "I have come to see how you are 
getting along," and then disappeared. He sprang 
from his bed, lit the gas, but found no one in the room 
besides himself, and the door was locked. He was 
alarmed lest something had happened at home, so 
early the next morning he sent his wife a fake tele- 
gram asking whether any word had come from 
Chicago about an appointment for him to lecture. 
He was glad to receive shortly a reply from his wife. 

Upon his return home he determined to say nothing 
to his wife concerning this subject until she herself 
had first mentioned it. After a little while she asked 
him whether he had slept well during his absence. 
He replied, unconcernedly, "Yes, fairly." After 



186 SUBJECTIVE MIND 

a while she repeated the question, asking whether 
he had slept well on a certain night, which was the 
same night on which he had had the singular ex- 
perience. He thereupon said to her: "What is it? 
Why do you ask?" Then she told him that on that 
evening she had been reading a curious statement 
to the effect that if one, just before retiring, will say 
to his subjective mind, "At such an hour to-night 
when I am asleep I wish to visit a certain friend at 
a distance," it will so do if conditions are favorable 
and there is harmony between the two. So she said: 
" I determined to try it. Just before retiring I fixt 
my mind upon you and said to myself, 'At 1 : 30 to- 
night I wish to visit my husband and awaken him, 
and iwhen he expresses surprize at my presence to 
stoop down and kiss him on the forehead, and then 
move to the foot of the bed and say, ' I have come 
to see how you are getting along.' " 

The clergyman at my request wrote out a full 
account of this strange experience, and told me 
that the morning following the apparition he spoke 
of it to two clergymen friends, one of whom is now 
dead. I wrote to the one now living asking him 
if he remembered anything about the incident. 

He replied that he remembered the Rev. Mr. 

telling him about his curious vision, but he could 
not remember all of the details, but his memory 



FOREIGN INTELLIGENCES 187 

of the principal details agreed with the facts given 
above. 

In the large two- volume work " Phantasms of the 
Living" by Gurney, Myers, and Podmore, and in 
Myers's " Human Personality " many cases of this 
type of phenomena are given. 



Class V 
Indicating intelligences outside of human bodies. 

Case 1. The incident narrated below is worthy 
of note because both of its character and the intelli- 
gence of the narrator. Its narrator is A. A. Hill, 
editor of The Blacksmith and Wheelwright, and The 
Amateur Sportsman, New York, 27 Park Place. After 
many questions, it was written out in full at my 
request. 

" Some twelve or fifteen years ago I was the editor of the 
New York Sunday Dispatch, a newspaper well known at 
that period and for many years before. One of our reporters 
was a man named Williamson, a son of the former owner, 
then deceased. He was about thirty years of age, and having 
long been connected with the paper, was retained on the staff 
by the new owner, more because of his faithfulness and 
loyalty and out of respect for his lamented father, than 
because of his journalistic or intellectual ability. It was his 
duty to take care of the city fire-department news and gossip, 
and his interest in the fire department and its affairs was 
unusual — I could almost say, phenomenal. Moreover, if 



188 NEW YORK EDITOR PUZZLED 

to his faithfulness and zeal for his work had been added 
average talent, he would have been a treasure as a reporter. 
It used to wound his feelings greatly whenever I found it 
necessary to curtail or otherwise edit the copy he turned in 
concerning what seemed to me to be rather trivial fire-de- 
partment matters. 

" But he was suddenly stricken with illness and died within 
a few days. In casting about for some one to fill his place, 
I bethought myself of a quiet, modest, but very bright young 
journalist who had previously been in my employ in another 
city. In engaging him I was careful not to inform him that 
a member of the staff had died or that he was to fill a vacancy. 
The position did not warrant paying a large salary, and a 
bright young man could take on other work. So I wrote 
my young friend that I could find work for him if he would 
come on and be willing to do anything called upon to do. 
He arrived the following Wednesday afternoon, and being 
a stranger in the city, I met him at the railway station and 
took him to the office. I gave him the desk formerly occupied 
for a good many years by his predecessor, who had then been 
dead for about a week, telling him he need do nothing that day, 
and if he would excuse me for a time while I finished some 
writing, I would then take him up-town and find him a 
place to board. 

" In about fifteen or twenty minutes he suddenly appeared 
at my desk, looking astonished and agitated. He laid two 
sheets of manuscript before me, written on the usual copy 
paper of the office, with the remark: 'I did not write that.' 
I could not see much sense in the remark, but replied: ' Well, 
if you didn't, who did? Some of it looks like your hand- 
writing.' His reply was: 'I don't know; as soon as I sat 
down I never felt so peculiar and drowsy in my life. I must 
have gone to sleep and when I was awakening I found myself 
writing, but it doesn't all look like my handwriting.' 

"Now, I should explain that this young man's hand- 
writing was nervous, small, and not clearly legible, while his 
dead predecessor had written a large, round hand that could 
be read easily. But the writing in question varied between 



GHOSTLY REPORTER 189 

that of the two; some of it was like the writing of the dead 
man and some like that of the new reporter, and other parts 
of it were a composite or intermixture of both. The last 
few words were undecipherable, and the sentence was ap- 
parently unfinished. It should likewise be stated that the 
deceased reporter had for years begun his report of the meet- 
ings of the fire commissioners in this form: 'The reg- 
ular weekly meeting of the fire commissioners was held last 
Wednesday, Commissioner in the chair.' The manu- 
script the young man had placed before me began that way, 
altho if he himself had been the author of it in his normal 
condition, it would by no means be the form he would begin 
a newspaper story of that kind. It purported to state what 
had been done at a fire commissioners' meeting, and altho 
it was not all clear or complete, there was enough to puzzle me. 

" Now comes the most singular fact : I preserved the two 
pages of manuscript, and the next day ascertained what had 
been done at the fire commissioners' meeting, held perhaps 
an hour or two before it had been written. I was astonished 
to find that so far as it went, it was a correct report of what 
had actually taken place. 

"What was the agency by which this information was 
conveyed? Was it thought-transference or mind-reading? 
It could not have come from me. I certainly neither knew 
nor cared what they did at the meeting, and I had intended 
to omit publishing the report for that week altogether, or 
get an abstract for publication from some other paper, not 
sending the new man for the report until the following week. 
The information could hardly have been 'thought trans- 
ferred' by any living fire commissioner from another part 
of the city; none of them was especially anxious that the 
Sunday Dispatch publish their reports, even if he were able 
to thus 'project' the information through space in this way. 
It could have been no one in the newspaper office, for no one 
had such information to impart, and there was only an office 
boy and a bookkeeper on the floor. It could not have been 
any trick or duplicity on the part of the new reporter him- 
self. He knew nothing about the fire commissioners, or 



190 TESTS BY HYSLOP 

their meetings, or that they were published in the paper 
which was to employ him, even tho he had possest the 
miraculous power of reporting a meeting several miles away 
and when not attending it. 

"Could the man who had just died, and who had always 
taken such a vital interest in the fire department and in the 
reports in the Sunday Dispatch concerning these meetings, 
have returned in spirit and through the new reporter com- 
municated the report for publication? 

"I will leave the solution to the reader. I have only 
stated the absolute facts." 

Case 2. Prof. James H. Hyslop tells of the fol- 
lowing concerning his first series of many tests 
through the medium Mrs. Piper: 

Professor Hyslop at the time of this series was 
personally unknown to Mrs. Piper. He went into 
her presence in disguise, and communications came 
to him through her while she was in a trance or 
cataleptic condition. As I said on a former page, 
after the most careful tests known to the medical 
profession, there is no question as to the genuineness 
of these cataleptic states of Mrs. Piper or of the fact 
that she is wholly unconscious when fully in this 
condition. 

Many of these strange communications that came 
to the Professor purported to come from his father 
and other members of his family who had died years 
before in the West. Some of the family affairs told 
were unknown to the Professor, but he succeeded in 



HYSLOP IDENTIFIES HIS FATHER 191 

verifying them afterward by communication with 
his distant relatives. The Professor has published, 
under the auspices of the Society for Psychical 
Research, a complete report of this series of sittings, 
every word uttered, however trivial, having been 
taken down in shorthand and published in this 
report. The result of this series of sittings was to 
convince Professor Hyslop that the dead can and do 
at times commune in a physical way with the living, 
and that in this case they did identify themselves 
to him so that he was convinced that he was talking 
to his father and other of his relatives. On one of 
these occasions she got the intelligence that claimed 
to be his father to give him privately a watchword 
or sentence by which he could at other sittings with 
other mediums identify his father if he came, and 
this watchword the Professor told to no living person. 
Such identification through another medium the 
Professor is certain he has secured. 

This conveyance of the watchword might be ex- 
plained possibly by telepathy, for quite likely the 
Professor at that moment was thinking of the watch- 
word. However, if thought can be transferred in 
this way, the successful identification of a spirit 
communicating becomes impossible. I fear, through 
our many objections, we are not giving the ghost 
the ghost of a chance. We should remember the scien- 



192 TELEPATY WILL NOT EXPLAIN 

tific canon: An explanation to be satisfactory must 
explain all of the facts that belong to the class. 
Here is a fact that must be included in the expla- 
nation: Professor Hyslop assures us that the Society 
for Psychical Research has secured transatlantic 
communication through Mrs. Piper in America 
and another medium in England, the message having 
started in English and been received in Latin, 
neither medium understanding Latin. This fact is 
a very difficult one for the hypothesis of telepathy 
fully to explain, but we need many more of such 
facts, and we need that they be more fully reported. 

Case 3. A short time ago I spent considerable 
time investigating the following facts. I have seen 
the correspondence, and am acquainted with the 
man concerned — I will call him Mr. R. — and have 
thoroughly cross-examined him, and have made 
inquiries of his neighbors and business friends who 
have known him for years. I find him to be a thor- 
oughly reputable man and that he is regarded by 
those who know him as wholly truthful. 

When he was two years of age his father and mother 
quarreled and the father left home, never to return. 
This was in London, England. Twent3^-nine years 
passed. The mother had died, and the son had come 
to America, and had succeeded in business, and had 



FINDS HIS FATHER 193 

married. Through newspaper reports he learned 
that a ps3^chic a number of miles distant from where 
he lived was answering questions concerning lost 
friends, etc. He wrote a letter, addrest it to his 
spirit mother, asking whether his father was living, 
and if so, how he could find him. He told no one 
of his intentions to visit the medium. He was not 
a spiritualist, and knew no one at the meeting. The 
letter he placed before the medium. She answered 
that a motherly woman is here and calls ' Wil- 
liam.' She says his father is living, and that if 
he would address a letter to Messrs. So-and-So on 
such a street and at such a number in London, he 
would be told of the father's whereabouts. Mr. R. 
said he did not know the firm in England, but sent 
a letter of inquiry as directed, asking his father's 
address. In a short time he received a letter saying 

that Mr. had been in their employ until about 

three years before, and that if a letter was addrest 
to him at such a street and number in Glasgow, it 
would be likely to reach him. He so addrest a 
letter, and soon received one from his father. It 
so happened that shortly after having written this 
letter, the father was killed in a railroad accident, 
but the son, through the correspondence that was 
found among his father's papers, heard from the 

executor and received his share of the estate. This 
13 



194 SPIRITUALISM MINUS IDENTITY 

is a case that, if the facts are as here given — and after 
very extensive investigation I am fully convinced 
that the facts are correct — no recognized theory of 
telepathy or clairvoyance can possibly explain. 

What is the explanation? I frankly say: "I 
don't know." There may be subconscious faculties 
in the human soul of which we know as yet very 
little. Then, again, it is not inconceivable that the 
countless spirit intelligences, good, bad, and indif- 
ferent, in the universe, may be able to perform such 
marvels as these I have just mentioned; and this 
explanation may leave the mother wholly out of the 
case. This latter explanation would be Spiritual- 
ism, minus the identity of the spirit. 

Case 4. The following has been investigated by 
me through correspondence with the different parties 
who participated in the affair. Mrs. L. is the widow 
of one who was an officer in the War Department 
in Washington. When her husband died, some two 
years ago, it was found that he had not left any 
memorandum giving the combination of the family 
safe in which were enclosed important papers. A 
government officer, who was a friend of the family, 
was called in, as well as a government " safe expert " 
from the Treasury Department, and after many efforts 
to open the safe, it was decided to have it sent to 



PRAYER OR SPIRITS— WHICH 195 

the machine shop connected with the Treasury 
Department and forcibly opened. Mrs. L., after 
thinking over the matter during the night, could not 
endure the thought of having the old family heirloom, 
which was so closely connected with her late husband, 
battered and broken. 

She finally sent for a safe expert who she had 
heard was somewhat of a private medium, to see 
if he could get any impression from spirit sources 
as to the lock combination. Mrs. L. herself was not 
a spiritualist. The man came and sat down before 
the safe, and Mrs. L. in her "own room engaged in 
earnest prayer." This man in his letter to me writes : 
"Some power seemed, as I sat before the safe, to 
take hold of my hand, and moved it to the right a 
certain distance, and then to the deft, and again 
to the right, and the safe opened.'' 

My examination into this case has removed all 
doubts from my mind as to the honesty of the parties 
involved. The woman, in her final letter to me, 
stoutly affirmed her belief that the safe came open 
through her prayer. The man, however, as stoutly 
asserts that the spirit of the dead husband guided 
his hand to the right combination. The Society 
for Psychical Research records many cases of this 
class. Prof. William James tells how his mother- 
in-law found a lost bank-book through Mrs. Piper, 



196 MRS. ELLA WHEELER WILCOX 

and Immanuel Kant tells how Swedenborg designated 
the exact spot where a lost receipt was hid, directed, 
Swedenborg said, by a spirit. 

Case 5. Mrs. Ella Wheeler Wilcox assures me of 
the truth of the following which she herself experi- 
enced and which is to her a conclusive proof of the 
continuity of existence and the possibility of intra- 
mundane communication: 

"A woman of good birth, social position, and culture, 
called upon me a few years ago. We possest mutual 
friends, but had never before met. I had heard of the 
remarkable psychic powers of this lady, known only to her 
intimate associates, and never employed for gain, as she 
was born in affluence and had married a man of means. I 
mentioned what I had heard of her and exprest a wish 
for a test. My caller seemed embarrassed and said: 

" ' I do not like to tamper with this strange force. I have 
possest it since a child, and my father nearly lost his 
mind investigating these things. My husband is violently 
opposed to the whole matter, and I rarely permit myself 
to give any exhibitions of my powers to any one. I confess 
I do not understand my gifts, and am a little afraid of them.' 

" However, after some persuasion she consented to oblige 
me. 

" I was living in a New York hotel at the time. I sent 
a bellboy to a lady whose children attended school and 
obtained two slates. But we had no pencils; and at my 
suggestion the psychic for the first time tried to obtain mes- 
sages on note paper between two slates. With the paper 
I placed a morsel of lead pencil about the size of the end of 
a darning-needle; a pencil so small that it would not have 
been held under the finger nail without losing itself. 

" I alone touched the paper: I alone touched the pencil; 



INTERESTING EXPERIMENTS 197 

the paper bore the hotel mark and I took it from my desk, 
with my own hands. 

" The room was brilliantly lighted. After I placed the paper 
and pencil between the slates, my caller held two ends of 
the slates in her hands and I held the other two. Almost 
instantly the closed slates were jerked and pulled as by some 
violent force ; and on the table and on the back of my chair 
knockings were distinctly audible. 

" Upon the paper in a fine, spider-like penmanship, but 
perfectly legible, was a most tender and motherly message 
bearing the signature of my husband's mother, who died 
when he was a small child; a young mother who had lived 
her sweet brief life in an obscure New-England village, and 
whose name and history are not known to one friend in one 
hundred of our circle of acquaintances. 

"I replaced other sheets of paper and in all six messages 
were given to me; all from different people, and all under 
the glare of a fully lighted electric chandelier, and all in 
my own room and with my own materials. 

" Several of these messages contained assertions and state- 
ments to which time has since given added weight. This 
experience occurred eight years ago. I know that I was 
not under any hallucination; I know that I was not in a 
hypnotic state; I know that the slates were not tampered 
with, and that I alone touched the paper and pencil; I know 
that no financial consideration entered into the experiment; 
and I know that the messages were written by some power 
not explainable by physical science. 

" It seems to me, in the light of such experience, as stupid 
as it is stubborn to deny the fact of communication with 
realms beyond. This is but one of the many convincing 
experiments which have come to me in the course of my 
investigations. In the mean time, I believe only those who 
wish to establish the spiritual truths on a scientific basis 
should tamper with these invisible forces. Just as no one 
ignorant of the laws of electricity should be allowed to juggle 
with the wires or the batteries. 

" I believe it is a sin against ourselves to seek continual 



198 INTERESTING EXPERIMENTS 

advice and information from the disembodied regarding 
our material affairs. It prevents our own psychic develop- 
ment, the use of our own divine powers. We have no right 
to lean on any spirit, in the body or out of it, until we have 
brought our own to the fulness of the light. 

"If we all listened and were still at times, we too 'would 
hear the murmur of the gods.' 

" But let science take the bandage from its eyes, and let 
it go up reverently into the higher realms of psychic inves- 
tigation and learn the truth, and tell it to the world, even 
as it has told the marvels of astronomy and electricity. 
No greater work can occupy it." 



VI 



CONCLUSION. — SOME THINGS THAT SEEM PROVEN, AND 
SOME THINGS THAT SEEM NOT PROVEN 

What are called Spiritualistic manifestations are, 
so far as my experience goes, in large part due to 
fraud and in large part are traceable to certain psy- 
chic powers within us — powers which are more or 
less active but which psychologists have not as yet 
clearly denned, in some cases not even really classi- 
fied — some, possibly, which they have not as yet 
recognized. 

But aside from these there are, in my judgment, 
whole classes of phenomena which point clearly to 
the operation of intelligent forces that exist outside 
of what we know as human bodies. 

These foreign forces manifest at times intelligence 
— indisputably so. This intelligence is a chief ele- 
ment in the psychic problem or problems to be solved. 

Whence and what is this intelligence? 

I am often asked why I refuse to accept Spiritual- 
ism as a proven fact. 

Life, London, England, the leading Spiritualistic 

paper on the other side of the Atlantic, pub- 

199 



200 CALLED AN OBSTINATE SKEPTIC 

lished recently some severe strictures on my atti- 
tude, declaring it to be "an exceptionally unfortu- 
nate one," and it published with apparent editorial 
indorsement such utterances as these: "Never was 
a more obstinate skeptic [than I]," declaring that I 
"cast upon Spiritualism a most incredulous, skep- 
tical countenance," kindly informing the public that 
I have "been too long on the fence and had better 
jump to one side or the other" — the writer growing 
more and more discouraged with my case finally 
cries out, "What then is the matter with Dr. Funk?" 
I am tempted to respond, " He's all right." 
Mr. Hudson Tuttle, one of the most prominent 
Spiritualistic writers in America, attempts in all 
kindness to answer these criticisms for me. He ex- 
plains that I am so closely connected with lifelong 
associates in the Church that an easy break must 
not be expected. But even he concludes that he 
does not see how "a sane man" can have had the 
experiences that I have had and remain in a skep- 
tical attitude toward Spiritualism. I am grateful 
for the intent of this friendly apologist, but I can 
not but assure him that I should despise myself if, 
for the reason he gives or for any other reason, I 
pretended falsely to hold a belief or a lack of belief. 
Sincerity has been rightly judged to be the "spinal 
column of a worthy character." 



TRUTH UNCRUSHABLE 201 

And besides, no man has a right to hide the light 
he has, however little it may be, under a pint cup, 
or a bushel. We are all to speak the truth that we 
understand tho the heavens fall, but truth has ever 
proven itself uncrushable granite that never permits 
anything to fall that rests upon it. Five men de- 
voted to truth in Sodom and Gomorrah would have 
been sufficient to have kept that whole region from 
sinking, yea, an entire continent, for truth is belted 
to the engines of omnipotence. It should go with- 
out saying that no man should think or act a lie to 
please any old associates in the Church or out of it. 
I am sorry to say that in many things I can not 
measure up to that grand old hero, Saint Paul, but 
in this I can put my hand on my heart and repeat 
with him : " With me it is a very small thing that I 
should be judged of you or of any man's judg- 
ment." 

If the reader will bear with me I will once more 
endeavor to make clear my attitude. My definition 
of a Spiritualist is one who holds as true these two 
propositions : 

1. That intelligences who are foreign to us, that 
is, who reside beyond our five senses, can and do 
communicate through the physical sense organs with 
those — or with some of those — who are living in the 
flesh. 



202 IDENTITY HYPOTHESIS 

2. That these intelligences can and do identify 
themselves as those who once lived in the flesh. 

I have no hesitancy in accepting the first of these 
two propositions. As to the second, I have seen no 
sufficient reason for believing it true. To its accept- 
ance as scientifically proven there remain some very 
formidable difficulties. I venture briefly to indicate 
one or two classes of these difficulties which I think 
must be rationally accounted for before it can be 
accepted as fully proven that these communicating 
intelligences are the personalities they claim to be. 

First Class of Hindrances to the Acceptance 
of the Identity Hypothesis: Through one of the 
best mediums I ever met I was told that the spirit 
of Theodore Parker wished me to do a certain thing. 
This was explicit. Three days after, I was with an- 
other medium, whom I believed and still believe to 
be honest. Theodore Parker reported himself as 
present, but denied all knowledge of the previous 
interview, saying that he was not there and had said 
nothing of the kind. Since that time I have had 
"Theodore Parker" reported as present at a dozen 
seances through different mediums, and have not yet 
been able to have him recognize any previous inter- 
view that I have had with him. 

This is not exceptional, but is typical of a multi- 



SCIENTIFIC CERTAINTY DIFFICULT 203 

tude of experiences. Will my critics mark this 
statment: Never once in a clearly denned way — 
wholly free from the possibility of collusion or coin- 
cidence or thought transference — have I, in an in- 
terview with a second medium, had described with 
anything approaching exactness a previous inter- 
view. Is this conclusion then wholly without foun- 
dation: Either these intelligences are not what they 
claim to be or there are on the spirit side some tre- 
mendous inhibitions or elements of confusion which 
we do not understand — as is quite believable — or it 
is true that mediums, because of their present state 
of imperfect mediumistic development, make scien- 
tific certainty difficult — this also is believable? 

Second Class of Hindrances to the Accept- 
ance of the Identity Hypothesis : I have sought 
in many ways and very often in vain t© bring har- 
mony out of the personal experiences of so-called 
spirits in the spirit land. I do not think that I have 
been unreasonably exacting — I have been willing to 
credit much to personal equation on both sides of 
the death line and to the " laws " governing the com- 
munication between the two worlds. Note this lack 
of harmony: Through one medium of remarkable 
power and, to my mind, unqualified honesty, a spirit 
described to me with great particularity his trip to 



204 CONTRADICTORY "TALKS" 

the planet Mars; he described the inhabitants, their 
civilization as further advanced than ours, the fauna, 
the flora — all this from 'personal observation. Some 
time afterward, through another medium equally 
creditable, another spirit told me of his trip to Mars, 
telling me that he found it wholly uninhabited, and 
practically destitute of animal and vegetable life. I 
informed this latter intelligence of what the other 
spirit had assured me he had found true in his trip 
to that ruddy planet. His reply was: "I can not 
help what he said. I am telling you what I 
know." 

Some "spirits" assure me that there are animals 
and flowers and trees galore on the spirit plateaus, 
connected with the earth; others tell me there are 
not. Some tell me they have there hospitals, schools, 
and churches; others the reverse. Some tell me no 
one in the spirit realm believes in what we here call 
God; others that He is preached and believed in far 
more there than here. 

The following is a case that is illustrative of many 
other of my experiences: I inquired of a spirit con- 
cerning a Mr. S., a friend of mine whom both the 
spirit and -I knew well, but from whom I had not 
heard for years. He assured me that the man had 
" passed over " and said, " at this moment he is with 
me and desires me to thank you for remembering 



CONFUSION CONFOUNDED 205 

him/' Shortly afterward, through another medium, 
I was placed in communication with another mutual 
friend in the spirit life and was told that this same 
Mr. S. " is still in the flesh, and only yesterday," the 
spirit continued, " I was with him and helped him in 
some of his plans." 

The well-known and eminent Spiritualist, Dr. J. 
M. Peebles, referring to a public utterance which I 
made some time ago of my contradictory experi- 
ences, wrote me that such contradictions were not 
uncommon experiences. He gave me an instance 
of a prominent Spiritualist who had consulted thirty 
mediums upon the subject of identifying and com- 
municating with a relative of his in the spirit life. 
"In these communications," he said, " there were 
twenty-seven contradictions and no positive proof 
that identified his brother." He enclosed me a 
typewritten copy of the experience of Col. J. L. Dry- 
den, a well-known Spiritualist in California, who has 
received "thirty-six or thirty-seven communica- 
tions from the spirit world" concerning his son who 
left home to enlist for the Philippine conflict. The 
Colonel gives a description of the many wild-goose 
chases on which these messages sent him. I give 
his remarkable description of his experiences as sent 
to me by Dr. Peebles. See Appendix B. 

In fairness to Dr. Peebles I must not fail to say 



206 DR. PEEBLES' FAITH 

that he adds: "I have had experience that satisfies 
me of the genuineness and of the identification of 
the influencing intelligences, and so I am a Spiritu- 
alist with strong religious or Christian tendencies. " 
Mr. Peebles himself explains these contradictions " by 
obsessions — obsessions by evil spirits often termed 
demons' 7 — against whom, the Doctor tells us, cer- 
tain protection is to be had "by sincere prayer, pure 
desire, and real faith in the Upper Universe." If 
this be true, "communion" is a much more serious 
matter than it is usually thought to be; which is also 
quite likely. 

Professor Hyslop, since my writing the above, has 
sent me an account of an experience that he has had, 
in which there is evidence of a spirit intelligence con- 
firming through one medium what was said to him 
by the same intelligence through another. This in- 
teresting experience of Professor Hyslop's will be 
found in Appendix C. 

Is there a clear, rational explanation, from the 
Spiritualist view-point, of the inconsistencies which 
I have indicated — an explanation that should clear 
all doubt from a "sane mind"? The obsession the- 
ory of Dr. Peebles I do not think has .been as yet 
sufficiently demonstrated to be accepted, but it is 
quite in harmony with what we are often told in the 
New Testament of " possession by evil spirits," "the 



WHAT SEEMS PROVEN 207 

casting out of devils," of insanity being caused by evil 
spirits obsessing their victims. 

I admit the honesty of the mediums to whom I 
have referred in my contradictory experiences, and 
I admit the inadequacy of any other hypothesis 
than that of Spiritualism to explain many of the 
phenomena encountered, but an explanation to be 
satisfactory to a rational mind should cover all of 
the facts "touchhV or pertainin' to," as the immortal 
Devery would say; they should match all around. 
I admit with Professor James of Harvard that the 
spirit hypothesis is the easiest all-round explanation, 
yet while there are such Himalayan difficulties in 
the way of one's acceptance of the identity hypothe- 
sis, is it quite fair for our Spiritualistic friends to 
question our sanity if we do not accept this hypothe- 
sis as wholly proven — just yet? 

Let none misunderstand — I believe in the world 
of spirits, I believe in "the communion of Saints" 
and, for that matter, in the communion of sinners. 
What I do not know for a certainty is whether there 
is any way open for physical communication between 
the spirit world and this — a way whereby spirits 
can surely identify themselves through our physical 
sensories — and whether they are doing it after a 
method that can be scientifically demonstrated. 



208 STRAINS COURAGE 

I believe that there are physical sensories and that 
there are spiritual sensories. That there is much 
communication with the spiritual world through the 
spiritual sensories I have no doubt. Is there any 
through the physical sensories? 

There is nothing in the thought that there is a 
spiritual world in communication with this world 
that frightens me in the least, for I have long been 
satisfied that the supernatural is only the unexplored 
part of the natural universe, that the universe on both 
sides of the grave is a uni- verse — as here, so there. 

In these matters it does not strain my courage in 
the slightest to say "yes," — it strains it much more 
to say "I do not know/' — nor do I value a truth 
simply because it has gray hairs and walks with a 
cane. The truths of the vintage of to-day are 
quite as pleasant to my taste as are those of the vin- 
tage of the first century or of that of any preceding 
age. 



CHIPS AND "LEFT-OVERS" 209 

I have reached the prescribed limit of my book 
and again find in my note-books many things unsaid 
that I intended to say, and I am tempted, as on page 
41, to dump in these " notes" unpolished and un- 
classified — some " hot from the bat." A diamond 
necklace has a beauty of its own, but I wonder if 
my reader has ever felt the keen delight of empty- 
ing from one hand into the other a lot of loose 
diamonds and other precious stones — this in the 
bright sunshine, letting his imagination take wings 
and create necklaces and clusters and tiaras without 
number, of all possible and impossible sizes and 
shapes. For one, I get more enjoyment out of such 
unclassified gems than I do from the most finished 
product of the lapidary — at least, at times. Now, if 
this illustration will prove as illuminating as it ap- 
pears immodest, it will serve my purpose. 

Of course, a counterfeiter deems every lapidary a 

fraud, and equally, of course, an author is inclined 

to see a gem in his every thought, but I trust that 

while my readers may not find these by-products and 

these " left-overs " to be all diamonds of the first 

water, they may, if they get the right view-point, 

find them worthy of some attention. 
14 



CHIPS AND "LEFT-OVERS" 

Somewhat Suggestive (See Page 41) 

There are two ways of looking at death : one leaves a bro- 
ken shell, destruction; the other, a bird which by and by 
will be singing in the branches. 

My faith in Christ does not rest on belief in His miracles, 
but upon something within me that responds to His teachings. 

Those who do not love death do not know it. 

We are surrounded by a multitude of witnesses — when this 
thought of Paul fully takes possession of the mind we will 
never more walk alone. 

A true religion says: " Try me and see." Its foundations 
are in experience, not in tradition, not in authority. There 
must be that within us that responds to it, or it is not 
our religion. He who obeys a truth develops a faculty that 
knows truth up to the level of that faculty's development. 
The religion of the future surely will be one that carries its 
own credentials. 

As it is with music so it is with religion. It is not in any 
man's power to demonstrate to me that he is a musician, 
if I myself am not a musician. Up to the plane of my musi- 
cal development I know, but not beyond that. 

It is easy to believe that the spirit-world is better than 
this and that we will be stronger there to do our work even 
for those we leave behind. Christ said: "If I go away I 
will come again, I go to prepare a place for you." He could 
do this better there than here, and if He, so we for our 
fellows. He is the " way," the "example," the "first- 
fruits" of the work He wrought; as He, so we. 

210 



CHIPS AND "LEFT-OVERS" 211 

We are not angry at one who strikes against us with his 
crutch? No, we overlook that in his misfortune. Then 
why be angry because one strikes against us with his imper- 
fection of mind or heart? There are many more mental, 
moral, and spiritual cripples than there are bodily cripples. 

If geologists have ciphered it out correctly the human 
race has taken some hundreds of thousands of years, possibly 
millions, in climbing up from the ameba to where we now are 
— what dismal ages, what wretchedness, what helplessness, 
what stupidity and ignorance, and what cruelty! Yet if we 
look about us and see what man has come to be, we must 
admit that this whole marvelous evolution has been carried 
on satisfactorily. 

To grow the spiritual qualities of love for the beautiful, 
of conscience, of love for our fellows, of service, of holiness, 
is a totally different work from growing potatoes and cab- 
bages and trees. That other is a work of ages. In such a 
task a million years counts as a day. 

There is a world of difference between my discovering the 
spiritual world by hearsay or by an intellectual process and 
my discovering it by its dwelling in me and I in it. One is 
objective and the other is a growth from the within out. 

Yes, I am to give fairly the two sides of the psychic ques- 
tion, for a broad-minded man should be many-sided — he 
must be one who can give the right and wrong side of the 
for and the wrong and right side of the against. 

We speak about the " indestructibility of matter." How 
do we know that it is indestructible? What is matter? — 
is it anything more than force? But then what we call 
force is transmutable ; how do we know that there may not 
be a time when a spiritual force manifests itself as a physical 
force, and then after some millions of years may cease as a 
physical force? If matter is a series of vibrations, suppose 
these vibrations cease, then what will happen? 



212 CHIPS AND "LEFT-OVERS" 

Marquis Ito says China has for centuries been sleeping in 
the vacuous vortex of the storm of forces, wildly whirling 
around her. More profound and strange is our sleep in 
the vortex of immeasurably more potent spiritual forces in 
tremendous activity all about us and of which these physical 
forces are the merest echoes, the faintest shadows. Helen 
Keller, on Broadway or in the Maid of the Mist at the foot 
of Niagara Falls, sees and hears nothing. To her all is pro- 
found silence and darkness. Sir William Crookes tells us 
that there are in all probability vast domains of activities 
for which we have no physical senses fitted to recognize. 
Yet, it sometimes happens in the life that now is, as says 
Longfellow, 

"The stranger at my fireside can not see 
The forms I see, nor hear the sounds I hear." 

You can not drown a fact even in words. You may ob- 
scure it by much talk but only for a time. 

Spiritualism, if true, means a new frontage to the race. 
The God of Augustine, of the Creeds, the God of the Old 
Testament, and the old interpretation of the God of the New 
Testament is largely outloved and quite likely will be soon 
outlived. The Church, if it would not die, must readjust 
itself to the new mental and spiritual unfoldings. 

We must not misinterpret the Fatherhood of God to mean 
an easy God. God compels us to grow character. His Christ 
does not present us with character; He presents us with an 
opportunity to grow it, and this task we must perform, no 
matter how many ages it may take. " There is no discharge 
in that war." And yet the poet's vision of God must be just : 

" The longer I live and more I see 

Of the struggle of souls to the heights above, 
The stronger this truth comes home to me: 

That the universe rests on the shoulders of love — 
A love so limitless, deep, and broad 
That men have renamed it and call it God." 



CHIPS AND " LEFT-OVERS 213 

We can best do something worth the while by being some- 
thing worth the while; — this latter lifts us up to the plane 
where we become allies with the mighty hosts that determine 
first causes. 

Enthusiasm is needed, for the constructive side of truth. 

The earth is a great orchard in which the fruit is in all 
stages of growth from the bud up to ripeness. Goodness is 
ripeness; badness is unripeness. Ah, in every orchard much 
unripened fruit falls to the ground prematurely, worm- 
eaten, dead. Is not this also true of the moral and spiritual 
orchard? Can we say of these, not a growth falls to the 
ground without God's provision for that growth, and that 
somewhere and somehow in the universe it will have another 
chance? The Master Shepherd was not content with the 
ninety and nine, but went in search of the missing one and 
rested not until He found it. 

A new Sun is coming higher and higher above the horizon, 
giving a light not seen on land or sea. Nearly all men are 
blind, some see a glimmer of this light ; then there are clouds 
and mists, but with here and there rifts in the clouds, and at 
times a flood of light for a few minutes which makes the soul 
sing with joy for many a day; and with some even when 
the mists are thickest light sifts through and gives twilight; 
all indicating a world of light somewhere different from any 
to which our physical senses are accustomed. 

We are in the midst of an infinite ocean of thought — how 
could it be otherwise if God is everywhere? Human progress 
is the opening of the windows and doors of the soul letting the 
All-light enter. No man creates a right thought — all truth 
is coined and stamped in the " above and beyond" and we, 
at our best, only give it recognition and expression. 

God, out of the stones, can raise up physical and intel- 
lectual men, numberless; but it required Infinite wisdom 
and love and Infinite power and millions of years to grow 
moral and spiritual men, men who, of their own free will, 
would find their all in love and service. 



214 CHIPS AND "LEFT-OVERS" 

Why is it unreasonable to believe that the sensories of the 
bouI when quickened are at least as reliable in their percep- 
tions as are those of our physical senses, and that the con- 
clusions based upon them are every whit as scientific? 

We plan and will, thinking that we dominate the unseen 
forces — harnessing the earth with a spider's web to regulate 
its speed and course. 

Belief in the reality of the unseen world will inspire courage 
in the poor and brighten all lives; it will give a tangible 
reason for the millionaire to cease living a life of waste and 
the life of the idle rich. Life will become real and earnest 
when we know — scientifically know — that the grave is not 
its goal. 

Every man is to work out his own salvation by sacrifice, 
by denial of the lower for the higher, by love, humility, 
service, consecration to God through consecration to man, by 
clean holy living. The only salvation possible is through 
individual choice and effort, as seen supremest in Christ; 
there can be no exemption, there can be no substitution. 
It is always " Come unto me who will, ' ' " Choose ye this day 
whom ye will serve." 

The day of judgment is not necessarily a day of punish- 
ment, it is a day of consequences. 

Humanity is in great agitation and ferment; much froth, 
foam, slag, comes to the top. What if our reputed wise men 
keep their eyes on this froth and slag and say these are the 
valuable outcome of all this agitation and turmoil? The 
dross is the conspicuous thing, but it is only fit to be cast 
aside as being in the way. The most likely place to find the 
pure metal is in the heart of the common people. It was 
nothing strange that the King of Glory chose a manger as a 
doorway through which to enter this world, and chose His 
Apostles from the common folk. The learned, the rich, 
the great, are usually the last to hear a call from above. 



CHIPS AND "LEFT-OVERS" 215 

The burdens which the unseen Intelligence of the universe 
puts upon us are so many compliments to our courage, 
devotion, strength. We should run toward them with glad 
feet and take them up with joyful hands. We often bear 
affliction without a murmur because we are too proud or too 
vain to make complaint, thinking this a weakness ; such 
resignation has no merit in it; but if grief is borne gladly 
because we believe it is part of the hammering necessary to 
round out character and is sent for this purpose by Infinite 
Wisdom, then it will yield good fruit. 

The child in the school puts letter to letter and makes out 
the word, but by and by it grasps the word as a whole, and 
then the sentence as a whole, no longer thinking of the letters 
or words. Now to us, the minute is the unit of life; then, 
the week and the month, and by and by the year, and then, 
after centuries of growth, a human life will be the unit of 
existence, and somewhere and somehow time will be to us no 
more — only one endless now. 

Often in seance-rooms the so-called spirit controls teach a 
religion that is thought by the "faithful" to be new, but it 
is not new, except to a sadly large portion of the people of 
this materialistic age. It is the religion of service which 
Christ taught in the supremest degree, but which we have 
been very slow to learn and, instead, have substituted very 
generally a gross counterfeit under the name of Christianity 
— a substitute that is made up of intellectual dogmas, of 
hard official charity, of hard competition — the " devil catch- 
ing the hindmost." Instead, let these old truths — now so 
often taught in seance-rooms: " Do unto others," " Resist not 
evil but overcome evil with good," "In honor preferring one 
another," "Seek not your own," — well, try these on Wall 
Street or on Broadway and on our churches — then the changes 
wrought by the earthquake in San Francisco would be child's 
play in comparison. Yet these are the alphabet of the 
religion taught by Him of Galilee — the sweetest vision earth 
ever saw. 



216 CHIPS AND " LEFT-OVERS " 

We are striving to invent skeleton keys that will fit in the 
wards of the lock of Heaven's gate. No key will unlock 
that gate but character, and character is of slow growth. 
Those who serve others and who are pure in heart will see 
God and none other can. 

We grow to the level of that which we prefer. 

There are countless millions of souls that do not know that 
they are dead — some in the body, many more out of the body. 

The Bible speaks of men as gods, but there is a vein of 
satire in the Bible — yet may not the Bible in this be prophet- 
ically right? 

Men who are up to the neck in the mud of materialism are 
not the best critics of psychic phenomena. We do not go 
to an asylum for the blind to get correct judgment of the 
respective merits of the pictures in a picture gallery. 

There is no Hell for us but what we dig, and there is no 
Heaven but what we build. God creates us, but here is a 
marvel : man creates his own God. I wonder if the reader 
understands me. Yet Heaven and Hell and God are stupen- 
dous realities. John Stuart Mill said, " I think almost what 
the so-called spirits teach — no Hell but conscience and char- 
acter with a possible illimitable progress." 

We must discriminate between cause and effect. A clergy- 
man writes to me that he has observed that where there is 
much Spiritualism there is little church attendance and that 
therefore Spiritualism tends to irreligion. It has often been 
observed that where there is much sickness there are many 
doctors — which is the cause and which the effect? Did the 
Church satisfy the spiritual hunger of the people, would 
Spiritualism abound? Would we not then find in the church, 
as in the Bible times, faith-cure and prayer-cure, and angel 
visits and inspiration — and who doubts that the churches 
then would be crowded as in the first three glorious centuries 
of the Christian era? 



CHIPS AND "LEFT-OVERS" 217 

Apologetically and shamefacedly we begin to admit our 
belief in a spirit-world. We hear as afar off the "Voice of 
God walking in the Garden." We are regaining our old 
courage to stand erect, feeling in some real sense that we have 
that within us which dominates matter, and 

"... shall flourish in immortal youth, 
Unhurt amidst the war of elements, 
The wreck of matter and the crash of worlds." 

When God sends a speaking tongue He also sends into the 
world eyes that can see and ears that can hear. 

Man must be free to see and free to describe what he sees, 
each from his own standing-place, and every man should 
have honesty and courage to tell just what he sees; there 
must be clear perception and full honesty and courage of 
conviction. The truthful soul will abide neither deception 
nor pretense nor cowardice. On the upper planes the spirit 
takes possession and dominates. 

A clergyman writes to me: "As God has not given us 
communication with the dead, therefore it is wrong and 
impossible." That conclusion may be right, but the argu- 
ment is faulty. Says Schiller: "I do not think it is much 
more plausible to argue that, if God had intended us to know, 
he would have spared us' the trouble and the discipline of 
finding out, than to say that, if God had meant us to wear 
clothes, we should have been born, like the angels, with 
becoming costumes." 

The instinct of a developed spirituality is a far higher and 
surer source of knowledge than is that of reason, however 
developed reason may be. 

The dominating aim in our lives will determine our likes 
and dislikes. Lowell says that liberty-loving Milton could 
not hide his sympathy with Satan as a republican and a 
rebel. No man is safe whose ideals are not up among the 
stars. 



218 CHIPS AND " LEFT-OVERS " 

The cell is the material unit of the living organism; but 
the cell is made up of matter which is constantly changing, 
yet we are conscious of the perdurance of our individuality. 
Memory persists. Can any one conceive of innumerable 
remembrances being produced by a cell or a combination 
of cells as yet persisting, while the cells are endlessly changing ; 
or can he conceive of material cells comparing, arranging, 
and judging the products of themselves or of other cells? 
A scientist who has credulity sufficient to believe all that, will 
have no difficulty, when he gets the proper twist, to believe 
the hypothesis of spirits — to believe that our individuality 
has its truest body made up of refined, subtle matter, of 
which the sensuous body is the outer, coarser expression to be 
slipt off at death as an overcoat is thrown off when we 
enter the house. 

The credulous are taken captive by the marvelous in 
their own fancies, and when repeated with the exaggerations 
of fervid imaginations the memories of their words become 
to them facts. They see the other world in a magic mirror, 
and the shadows of their own creation stir the fertility of 
their minds like realities. 

There is no hand in all the earth that is powerful enough to 
reverse the lever and turn the earth away from the sunrise, 
which in evolution awaits the race. 

It is not safe except now and then for one to undertake 
mediumship at the present time when the laws that govern 
it are so imperfectly understood, even tho the spirit hypothesis 
be true. Ocean steamers plow their way unharmed through 
eddies and the outward circles of a maelstrom and find the 
port beyond, while the small sail-boats are held and de- 
stroyed. Swallows may wing their way through spiders' 
webs, but flies are caught and perish. But unfortunately 
every one of us is apt to think himself an ocean steamer or 
a bird of 6trong wing, and that the others are the feeble 
"folks" who need be cautious. 



CHIPS AND "LEFT-OVERS" 219 

Some spirits out of the flesh, as well as some in the flesh, 
will lfe for the glory of God — in modern times as well as in 
ancient times — and think themselves in this act profoundly- 
religious. 

We must become better m order to become wiser. 

There is only one language, all else are dialects. Let the 
spirit of truth dominate absolutely and we will understand 
all and be understood by all. Music, beauty, love, courage, 
heroism, holiness — for these there is no need of an interpreter 
between developed souls within the body or out of it. To 
him who only pretends to these things the Master will say, 
when the day of testing comes, "Depart, I never knew you." 

When a man makes a piece of common iron magnetic so 
that it draws to itself needles or nails, has he wrought a 
miracle? Christ took water and gave to it the attributes of 
wine. Why call it a miracle? A field full of weeds and 
thistles is changed into a field of flowers or of wheat. The 
change was wrought by the farmer, but not a law was sus- 
pended or violated. Can man do this and the mind of God 
not do infinitely more? "Verily, verily," the Infinite One 
says to us, " heaven and earth will pass away before one jot 
or tittle of any law — the order of the universe — will be 
suspended or annulled, until it has fulfilled to the fullest that 
for which the law was ordained." 

This is a sample of many speeches of " spirits" in seance- 
rooms : 

"O ye foolish men, when will you learn that spirits are not 
infallible and that mediums are not infallible and that the 
Bibles of earth are not infallible? Your Bible was not given 
to you as an infallible guide to save you from thinking out 
these things, but only to be hints and suggestions, as are the 
teachings of professors in schools. No man is free from 
working out his own salvation, intellectual or moral or spiri- 
tual. Your Bible has been taken from the greatest and best 
utterances of men who lived nearest the plane of God and 



220 CHIPS AND " LEFT-OVERS " 

of holy angels, but think not that these are unerring. You 
want somebody to tell you what to believe: the Catholic 
wants his priest to tell him and the Protestant wants a book 
to tell him, the Spiritualist wants spirits to tell him. This 
is not God's plan, every man must seek for himself if he would 
find, knock if he would enter. By this method we grow to 
that which we would understand and then there is that 
within us that responds to the truth as the soul of the musician 
recognizes an oratorio of a Mozart. Call no man Lord or 
Master, whether in the flesh or out of the flesh. One alone 
is master, even Jehovah, for He is all truth, all reason, infinite 
goodness, hence is the One we can serve without humiliation 
or the surrender of our individuality." 

It does not take much to make a fool of a man, but strange 
as it may seem, it takes less on the materialistic side than 
on the spiritualistic. 

Communion between this and the other world will cease 
to be wonderful when it becomes common, and if it is a fact 
it will surely become common — it may be fifty years, it may 
be one hundred years, it may be five hundred years hence. 
And it certainly is true that the civilized world is developing 
spiritually — never so rapidly as to-day — and this develop- 
ment is not based on ignorance or on superstition, but in- 
creasingly on science. 

When the time arrives for a new evolution, to 'misunder- 
stand the signs is dangerous. For a grub not to become a 
butterfly when its hour is at hand would mean death; it 
must then be either a butterfly or a dead grub. 

Here is my confession at three score and seven: With 
advancing age my life sinks more and more into simplicity 
and calm; my environments affect me less and less and I 
grow more unconcerned about anything hostile to me, feel- 
ing assured that none of these things can affect me. I sink 
into what I feel sure to be an infinite and everlasting security : 
"My peace I leave with you." There is in me a growing 



CHIPS AND "LEFT-OVERS" 221 

certainty that my individual personality is everlastingly 
inviolate — that neither life nor death nor powers from below 
nor above nor any force whatsoever, whether present or to 
come, can separate me from the love of God which is mani- 
fested in Christ Jesus. 

If one on a mountain top should describe to me 
in the valley things which he sees, I must not say 
that they do not exist because I do not see them. 
If I go where he is I will be better able to know. 
One morning I was on Goat Island at Niagara, the 
sun behind me, and I saw a beautiful rainbow spanning 
the Falls on the mist that rose in clouds — a glorious 
rainbow that said that God who made all this is not 
only powerful and wise, but loves also the beautiful ! 
Upon my return to the hotel I told my son what I had 
seen. He said, " I can see the mist, but I see no 
rainbow on it." "True," said I, "from where you 
are you see none, but from where I was I saw one." 



Momentary Partings of the Veil 

And the Prophet said: Fear not; for they that are 
with us are more than they that are with them. And 
Elisha prayed and said, Jehovah, I pray thee open 
his eyes that he may see. And Jehovah opened the 
eyes of the young man; and he saw: and behold, the 
mountain was full of horses and chariots and fire 
round about Elisha. 1 

And Jesus took Peter and James and John up 
into a high mountain, and as he prayed his appearance 
was changed and there appeared unto them Moses 
[then passed from earth 1400 years] and Elias [then 
passed from earth 900 years] and they spake of his 
decease which he should accomplish at Jerusalem. 2 

*II Kings vi. 17. 2 Luke ix. 28-36. 



222 



APPENDICES 



APPENDIX A 

MRS. EMILY S. FRENCHES DEAFNESS 

Testimony from her physicians, and from others who have 
known her for many years. 

Alvin A. Hubbell, M.D., 212 Franklin St., Bufealo, 
N. Y., an Eye and Ear Specialist: 

"Mrs. Emily S. French has been a patient of mine both 
for her eyes and ears since May 22, 1893. She then had and 
still has defective hearing in both ears caused by an affection 
of the internal ear (auditory nerve). There was, also, and 
still is, defective vision due to affection — slight atrophic 
changes — of the optic nerves and of the choroid coat of the 
eye near the optic disk. She also complained of 'nerve' 
symptoms, shooting pains in the lower extremities, 'cramp- 
ing' of muscles of the legs, feeling of a tight band around 
the waist, which, taken in connection with the affections of 
the auditory and optic nerves, suggested to me the possibil- 
ity of locomotor ataxia. She had, however, an aversion to 
doctors and would not consult a good neurologist. . . . 
While Mrs. French appears to have confidence in me pro- 
fessionally, my skepticism along psychic lines rules me out 
of her seances, altho she has continued to be very friendly 
as a patient, whose entire confidence as a specialist I seem to 
have. There is no doubt that Mrs. French is and has been 
for years a sick woman." 

Volney A. Hoard, M.D., 691 Main Street East, Roches- 
ter, N. Y. : 

"I am a practising physician, duly licensed as such, and 
have practised my profession in the city of Rochester for the 
15 225 



226 APPENDIX A 

past twenty-four years. For seventeen years past I have been 
the physician to Mrs. Emily S. French. I knew that she was 
somewhat deaf from my first acquaintance with her. Her 
deafness has materially increased since that time, and has 
been specially marked since about seven years ago, at the 
time of a serious illness. Her deafness at the present time 
is marked. One sitting three feet distant from her and fa- 
cing her can not make her hear ordinary conversation, but 
she does hear at that distance when the voice is raised about 
fifty per cent, above the ordinary conversational tone. There 
is no question in my mind of her entire honesty and integ- 
rity, nor is there any question as to her decided deafness. 
She appears to be a woman whose weight would be 120 
pounds, and about seventy-two (72) years of age. I am in- 
formed that this day she was actually weighed and that her 
weight is 117| pounds. I have this day measured her chest 
and find the measurement 28J inches expiration and 3O5 
inches inspiration. ... I never knew that Mrs. French 
claimed to have any powers as a medium and have never 
witnessed any of her manifestations. I am not a spiritual- 
ist myself and have never had anything to do with its mani- 
festations." 

Dr. Jane M. Frear, 21 Orton Place, Buffalo, N. Y.: 

"Mrs. French is an old friend of my family. For years 
she has visited in my father's home and later in my own 
home. She has spent weeks at a time with me. She has 
been deaf during all of the time I have known her, twenty- 
five years or more. Her deafness has increased during the 
last few years. 

" A number of years ago I took Mrs. French to the eminent 
eye and ear specialist, Dr. Alvin A. Hubbell, of this city, to 
have her ears examined and see what he could do to relieve 
the deafness. He made the examination in my presence 
and pronounced the case incurable because of the scar tissue 
on the membrane left by scarlet fever. 

"As to the strange psychic manifestations that take place 



APPENDIX A 227 

in her presence, it would probably be of interest to you to 
mention something of my own experience in connection with 
her. My father and I at one time were talking with her, we 
standing on opposite sides of a doorway. The light from 
the next room made Mrs. French's face plainly visible to me. 
I was looking at her and talking to her when the loud voice 
known as ' Red Jacket ' spoke to us from the top of the stair- 
way, which was in the dark. I have also heard a voice be- 
ginning to speak while she was talking. This has happened 
on several occasions, while I was chatting with her — her 
deafness prevented her from catching the first vibrations of 
the other voice or voices. I have also heard two voices sing- 
ing at the same time — she does not sing. These voices were 
male voices. 

"Mrs. French's health is not good: she is nervous and very 
sensitive. It seems to me it is of first importance in efforts 
to obtain tests of scientific value from her that she be made 
to feel perfectly at ease, placed under no nerve strain or ten- 
sion. She must be able to know that she is among friends 
who have no suspicion of fraud in connection with her phe- 
nomena. The people surrounding her should have a kindly 
feeling toward her, or her sensitive nature will discover this 
lack of harmony, and her peculiar powers will not be able to 
manifest the phenomena which seem to come through her. 
It seems to me that some of the scientific tests to which she 
has been subjected have been unscientific, really absurdly 
cruel." 

William A. Sutherland, a prominent lawyer in Roch- 
ester, N. Y. : 

" I am willing to state that I have known Mrs. French per- 
sonally for five years past, and she has visited at my house 
and been entertained by my wife while living ; that my wife 
was very deaf and that I procured an acousticon for my 
wife, which, however, she was not able to utilize very long, 
and after her death I presented it to Mrs. French, who has 
not yet been very successful with its use. I can certify in 



228 APPENDIX A 

the strongest manner my belief in her deafness. I am not 
a Spiritualist, but I am one of those who are puzzled by these 
psychic phenomena." 

George C. Northrop, merchant at Lakeville, N. Y., 

ON MY REQUEST HAS MADE THE FOLLOWING AFFIDAVIT! 

State of New York, 



County of Livingston, 

George C. Northrop, being duly sworn, says: I am a dealer 
in coal, grain, flour, etc., at the village of Lakeville in the 
County of Livingston, N. Y., and have been for many years; 
I am now 76 years of age; I have known Mrs. Emily S. 
French, of Rochester, N. Y., ever since she was a child; I 
know that when she was about ten years of age she had 
scarlet fever and that she has been deaf ever since; I have 
seen her since then on an average of probably three or four 
times each year, conversing with her. I know that her deaf- 
ness has been on the increase almost ever since her child- 
hood; I know that somewhere in the neighborhood of six 
years ago she had a partial stroke of paralysis, since which 
time her deafness has greatly increased. 

(Signed) George C. Northrop. 

Sworn to before me, this sixth day of July, 1905. 
(Signed) Frank S. Roe, 

Justice of the Peace. 



APPENDIX B 

COL. J. s. dryden's bewildering experience in seek- 
ing INFORMATION AS TO THE WHEREABOUT OF HIS SON 

This writing has been sent to me by Dr. J. M. Peebles (see 
page 205) : 

" In May, 1898, my son left home to enlist for the Philip- 
pine conflict, and the last we have seen or heard of him on 
the material plane was when he separated from his brother 
at Bakersfield, Cal., now almost eight years ago. Since that 
time I have received thirty-six or thirty-seven different com- 
munications from the spirit world concerning him, and the 
strangely contradictory, uncertain, and unsatisfactory na- 
ture of all, and the absurd character of some of the messages 
have aroused within me strange speculations as to the nature 
of spirit messages, and even serious doubts as to the relia- 
bility of either the spirits giving or the mediums receiving 
said messages. 

"After exhausting the material sources of information, I 
turned with confidence to the spirit world, fully believing 
that if the boy had passed to that realm it would be known 
by some one and truthfully reported to me. 

"Among the first, if not the first, messages received, was 
one not purporting to come from himself, but from some one 
speaking for him, that he had perished in a snow-slide in the 
Klondike. A few days later in a public circle, at the close 
of a Sunday service in a Spiritualist hall, one announcing 
himself as my father, who has been in spirit life fifty-four 
years, declared that he had brought the boy there with him, 
who was as yet unable to speak for himself, and gave a par- 
tial account of his transition, but not the snow-slide method 

229 



230 APPENDIX B 

at all. This seemed so authentic and rational that I felt 
satisfied with it and made no further inquiries for a time, 
when, judge of my surprise, to have father, or some one pre- 
tending to be he, deny that he ever gave such a communica- 
tion in public or otherwise, and declare positively that he 
knew nothing as to the boy's whereabout. 

"Then followed communications of all kinds and descrip- 
tions, from public platforms, at circles and private sittings, 
in perhaps two or three instances in answer to inquiries of 
my own, but in over thirty instances unexpected and un- 
called-for. 

"Two others placed him in the Klondike, one that he was 
digging gold and getting rich, and another that he was do- 
ing something else, and gave the name of the city where he 
could be reached. I wrote the postmaster there and no 
such person had ever been heard of there. 

"Two others told of his tragic ending at Bakersfield, one 
that he had been murdered in or near the city, and the other 
that he had been killed by the cars a few miles north of the 
city. I wrote the coroner, public administrator, etc., but 
no such occurrences had taken place anywhere near the date 
alleged. 

"Two others saw him lying on the seashore dead, where 
he had been washed ashore from a wreck, one near Manila, 
and the other one somewhere along the coast, away up in 
Alaska or somewhere north of here. 

" Another one claimed that he had deserted from the army 
and was somewhere in Africa. Another that he was in busi- 
ness in the Philippines and was making plenty of ' shiners.' 
Another one — or probably two others — that he was a sailor 
on merchantmen and on long voyages. Another, that he 
was mining in Arizona, but could give no post-office ad- 
dress, etc. Just about an equal number affirm positively 
that he is in spirit life. In one instance, my own grand- 
mother was represented as saying that she was with him 
when he passed out and cared for him in the new life. But 
my own father, mother, three brothers, five sisters, and 



APPENDIX B 231 

three of my own children in spirit life, with all of whom — or 
someone representing them — I have communed, not one of 
them has seen him or knows of his whereabout. 

"This last is the most puzzling feature to me. It would 
seem that if the magnetic lines of kinship exist between the 
boy and myself, or any of the rest of us, he might be traced 
if yet in the form. In reference to many of the instances in 
which it was claimed that he is still in earth life, I have 
thought that the fact that he was a twin, that his brother 
is still in the body and all the time thinking and pining over 
his brother's absence may be a partial explanation of some 
of them. They may be getting the magnetism confused. 
Altogether, it is a strange experience, has filled me with 
unpleasant reflections, and at times almost shaken my con- 
fidence in the phenomenal side of Spiritualism. 

"San Diego, Jan. 29, 1906. 

" P. S. — The 'latest dispatch' was yesterday, January 28 
— that he had been murdered by a native in the Philippines 
and his body thrown into a river, and that a sum of money 
could be obtained by investigation. I called upon the me- 
dium this morning, but not a hint could be obtained as to 
where to investigate, what he was doing, or anything about 
it." 



APPENDIX C 

PROFESSOR HYSLOP SEEMS TO IDENTIFY A COMMUNICATING 
INTELLIGENCE AN INTERESTING EXPERIENCE 

The following reached me from Professor Hyslop as I am 
carrying this book through to press : 

". . . I had an arrangement for three sittings beginning 
March 19, 1906. Previous to this I arranged to have a 
sitting with a lady whom I knew well in New York City. 
She was not a professional psychic, but a lady occupying an 
important position in one of the large corporations in this 
city. This sitting was on the night of March 16, Friday. 
At this sitting Dr. Hodgson purported to be present. His 
name was written and some pertinent things said with ref- 
erence to myself, tho they were not in any respect evidential. 
Nor could I attach evidential value to the giving of his name 
as the lady knew well that he had died. I put away my 
record of the facts and said nothing about the result to any 
one. I went on to Boston to have my sittings with Mrs. 
Piper. 

" Soon after the beginning of the sitting, Rector, the trance 
personality usually controlling, wrote that he had seen me ' at 
another light/ that he had brought Hodgson there, but that 
they could not make themselves clear, and asked me if I had 
understood them. I asked when it was and received the 
reply that it was two days before Sabbath. The reader will 
see that this coincides with the time of the sitting in New 
York. Some statements were then made by Rector about 
the difficulty of communicating there, owing to the 'inter- 
vention of the mind of the light/ a fact coinciding with my 
knowledge of the case, and stated that they had tried to 
send through a certain word, which in fact I did not get. 

"When Dr. Hodgson came a few minutes afterward to 
communicate he at once asked me, after the usual form of 
his greeting, if I had received his message, and on my reply 

232 



APPENDIX G 233 

that I was not certain he asked me to try the lady some day 
again. As soon as the sitting was over I wrote to the lady 
without saying a word of what had happened and arranged 
for another sitting with her for Saturday evening, the 24th. 
" At this sitting one of the trance personalities of the Piper 
case, one who does not often appear there, appeared at this 
sitting with Miss X., as I shall call her, and wrote his name, 
if that form of expression be allowed. Miss X. had heard 
of this personality, but knew that Rector was the usual 
amanuensis in the Piper case. Immediately following the 
trance personality whose name was written, Dr. Hodgson 
purported to communicate and used almost the identical 
phrases with which he begins his communications in the 
Piper case — in fact, several words were identical, and they 
are not the usual introduction of other communicators. 
After receiving this message I wrote to Mr. Henry James, 
Jr., without saying what I had gotten and asked him to in- 
terrogate Dr. Hodgson when he got a sitting to know if he 
had recently been communicating with me and, if he answered 
in the affirmative, to ask Dr. Hodgson what he had told me. 
About three weeks after, Mr. James had his sitting and car- 
ried out my request. Dr. Hodgson replied that he had been 
trying to communicate with me several Sabbaths previously 
and stated with some approximation to it the message which 
I had received on the evening of the 24th. 1 

"The reader will perceive that these incidents involve 
cross-references with another psychic than Mrs. Piper, and 
tho I am familiar with the methods by which professional 
mediums communicate with each other about certain per- 
sons who can be made victims of their craft, it must be remem- 
bered that we are not dealing with a professional medium 
in Miss X. and that we can not call Mrs. Piper this in the 
ordinary use of the term. I can vouch for the trustworthi- 
ness of Miss X. and think that the ordinary explanation of 
the coincidences will not apply in this instance." 

1 It is to be noticed in this instance that the facts were not 
in the mind of either the medium or the sitter. 



APPENDIX D 

LOMBROSO 's CONVERSION TO SPIRITUALISM 

The following appeared in the January Review of Re- 
views, London; William T. Stead, editor: 

" WHY I BECAME A SPIRITUALIST." 

Professor Lombroso 's Story of His Conversion. 

The conversion of a noted man of science, who had fiercely 
opposed Spiritualism, into a convinced believer is something 
of a sensational incident, and the cause of the conversion, 
judging from the account given by Professor Lombroso in 
the Grand Magazine, is as sensational as the effect. To 
quote his own words, he says: " Until the year 1890 Spiritual- 
ism had no fiercer or more obstinate opponent than I. The 
greater part of my life hitherto had been consecrated to 
positivist doctrines: to the demonstration of the fact that 
thought is but a direct emanation from the brain. More- 
over, I was on the threshold of that age when we all tend to 
refuse novelty, be its truth ever so evident." He had, 
further, a positive distaste for methods of investigation in 
which the usual instruments and experiments were lacking. 

SEEING BY THE TIP OP THE EAR. 

However, in the course of his medical practise in 1892 he 
was called to attend the daughter of a man holding high office 
in his city, a patient suffering from violent hysteria, with 
extraordinary and apparently inexplicable symptoms. He 
says : — 

At times, for instance, she completely lost the faculty of 
sight, so far as her eyes were concerned, but was able to see 

234 



APPENDIX D 235 

with the tip of her ear! When her eyes were completely 
covered with bandages she was able to read some lines of a 
page held before her ear. If the rays of the sun were directed 
on her ear by means of a lens she was as much dazzled as if 
the light had been directed to her eyes ; she protested loudly 
that she was being blinded. Subsequently her sense of taste 
was transplanted to her knee, her sense of smell to her toes. 
She also exhibited telepathic and premonitory phenomena 
that were extremely curious. 

She could see her brother in the wings of a music hall a 
kilometer away. She felt her father's approach when he was 
several hundred yards distant. 

INERRANT PREDICTIONS. 

She was able to prophesy with mathematical accuracy 
what was about to happen to her. She predicted that 
exactly a fortnight thence, at nine o'clock, she would lose 
the faculty of walking. So it fell out to the minute. She 
predicted that " at midday in a month and three days from 
to-day" she would be taken with an irresistible desire to bite. 
All clocks and other means of knowing the time were removed 
from her, but punctually to the hour the biting began. She 
insisted that the application of aluminum would cure her 
paralysis. They tried to put her off with other means, but 
at last aluminum was applied and she grew better. 

THE MARVELS WROUGHT EY A MEDIUM. 

These phenomena, he was forced to confess, were quite 
irreconcilable with every acknowledged physiological or 
pathological theory. Subsequently, when at Naples, he 
was urged to see the celebrated medium, Eusapia Palladino. 
He went, on condition that everything was in full daylight. 
He beheld in the full light of day a table rise from the floor 
and a trumpet dart from the bed to the table and back again. 
At the next seance he saw a curtain in front of the alcove 
suddenly stand out and enfold him. It felt exactly like a 
thin sheet of lead. A ponderous sideboard began to slide 
in his direction. A dynamometer placed on the table at about 



236 APPENDIX D 

half a yard from the medium indicated 42 kilogrammes, 
tho in a normal condition Eusapia could never make it 
mark more than 36. He saw gaseous arms stretched out 
from Eusapia, seize the bell and ring it, which they while 
holding her hands had asked her to ring. 

aaron's budding rod outdone. 

Aaron's rod that budded is prosaic compared with the 
next incident he mentions: — 

In Milan, at a seance where I was present with Richet, 
each of us saw a branch of roses grow, as it were, and slowly 
come out of the sleeves of our coats, the flowers as fresh as 
if they had been cut at that very instant. 

Then Eusapia, put on a weighing-machine, made her weight 
increase or decrease by more than twenty pounds. 

BREAKDOWN OF PHYSICAL EXPLANATIONS. 

Such experiences led the Professor to construct hypotheses 
that these were so many hysterical and hypnotic phenomena, 
due to a motor and even a sensorial projection from the 
psycho-motor centers of the medium's brain; also that 
telepathic transmission might be explained by psychical 
transmission from one brain to another, which is analogous 
to what takes place in wireless telegraphy. But M. Ermacora, 
"who has studied Spiritualism far more profoundly than I 
have, showed me that telepathic transmissions reach an 
enormous distance, while the energy of vibratory movement 
invariably diminishes as the square of the distance, and that 
the brain is by no means an instrument on the top of an 
immobile base, as is that of Marconi. To completely de- 
molish my cherished hypothesis I was, during the last few 
years, to come across several haunted houses from which 
mediums were entirely absent." 

EXTRATERRESTRIAL EXISTENCES AND THE FOURTH DIMENSION. 

Finally he reached the Spiritualist conclusion: — 
"It was only, I repeat, after such occurrences as these, and 
especially after seeing the experiments after the order of 



APPENDIX D 237 

those reported by Crookes with Home and Katie King, as 
well as those of Richet and others, that I felt myself compelled 
to yield to the conviction that spiritualistic phenomena, if due 
in great part to the influence of the medium, are likewise 
attributable to the influence of extraterrestrial existences, 
which may, perhaps, be compared to the radioactivity which 
still persists in tubes after the radium which originated them 
has disappeared." 

He adds that the phenomena so frequently observed of 
levitation in movement of objects, that is to say, of the in- 
version or upsetting of the laws of gravity, of impermeability 
of matter, and of time and space, suggest that the influence of 
the medium in a state of trance may be powerful enough to 
upset and change, within his neighborhood, what we under- 
stand by the laws of space of three dimensions, substituting 
for these laws those of the space of four dimensions, proving 
experimentally correct what was before but a mathematical 
hypothesis. 

The Illustrated Mail (January 19, 1907), London, begins 
its comment on this magazine article of Professor Lombroso 
as follows: 

"There are a few people, of course, who scoff at spirit mani- 
festations, and boldly deny the possibility of holding any 
communication with another world. All seances they ridi- 
cule, and all Spiritualistic mediums they describe as frauds. 
Perhaps they would not be so hasty in their judgment were 
they aware of the weird and wonderful experiments made 
recently by some of the most famous European men of 
science. 

"Professor Csesare Lombroso, the founder of the science 
of criminology, whose chief works have been translated into 
every European language, and whose pupils are lecturing in 
the halls of the capitals of almost every land, was up to a few 
years ago one of the most bitter opponents of Spiritualism." 

Then the editor proceeds to give an account of the won- 
derful experiences which Lombroso has had in the course of 
his psychic investigations. 



APPENDIX E 

CAMILLE FLAMMARION'S DENIAL 

A cable dispatch from Paris was published a few weeks 
ago in many American papers announcing that the well- 
known scientist Flammarion had recanted his confession 
of belief in the reality of psychic phenomena and in the spirit 
hypothesis as an explanatory theory of some of these phe- 
nomena. 

In reply to a letter of inquiry from his American publishers 
he writes — I have been favored with a copy of the letter — • 

" Herbert B. Turner & Company, 

" Dear Sirs : I have already published a denial of that bi- 
zarre report to which you refer. There is not one word of truth 
in the story. The work, of which you are about to receive 
manuscript, is destined, on the contrary, to prove indisputably 
the objective reality of the phenomena produced by mediums. 
These phenomena are absolutely certain to every impartial 
observer who has been able to devote sufficient time to their 
study. My work on Some Natural Unknown Forces con- 
tains my experiments with the famous medium Eusapia 
Paladino and with the other mediums since the time of Allan 
Kardec, those of Prof. Richet, of the Count de Roches, of 
Victor Sardou, Jules Claretie, of Adolphe Brisson, of Lom- 
broso, of Aksakof, of Dr. Dariex, of Sully-Prudhomme, of 
Prof. Porro, of Ochrowicz, as well as those of the Count of 
Gasperin, of Prof. Thiory of Geneva, of the Institute Dia- 
lectique of London, Dr. Alfred Russell Wallace, Sir William 
Crookes, etc., etc. 

"After reading this book it will be no longer possible to 
doubt the existence of pychic forces and of a dynamic world 
in the bosom of which we are plunged and the nature of which 
still remains mysterious. Camille Flammarion." 

Paris, France. 

238 



INDEX 



Advice, Cock-Sure, from Non- 
investigating Critics. ...... 11 

Appendices 223 

Balfour's Admission 27 

Black Art, A Real 12 

Brutus's Ghost, Josephus's 

Account of 8 

Cannon's, Speaker, Opinion 
of the Spirit Hypothesis. 17 

Carus's, Paul, Objection 144 

Catholic Church Forbids Com- 
munication with Spirits. . . 7 
Chips and "Left-overs," 

41-46, 209-220 
Church Helped by Psychic 

Research 33 

Church, Hostility of the, to 

the Spirit Hypothesis 30 

Churchmen, Appeal to 32 

Clairvoyancy 172 

Confusion Worse Confounded, 

202-206 
Contradictory Communica- 
tions 202-206 

" Crank for Sure " 25 

Criticized by Spiritualists . . . 200 

Critics, A Reply to 98 

Crookes's, Sir William, Ex- 
planation 168 

Daniel, the Prophet, a Clever 
Investigator. 31 

Darkness, Effects of, on Wire- 
less Telegraphy — Marconi's 
Experience 102 



Darkness, Richet's Opinion. . 102 

Darkness, why Necessary. . . 101 

Dead Seemingly, yet Fully 
Conscious 113, 182 

Deafness of the Medium Em- 
ily S. French 102 

Deafness, Emily S. French's 
— Testimony of Physicians, 
etc 225 

Delusion, A Dangerous 129 

Diagram of Room where 
" Voices " were Tested. . . . 100 

Difficulties on the " Spirit " 
Side 36 

Disbelief in Evil Spirits a Dan- 
gerous Mistake 129 

Dryden's, Col. J. L. , Sad Ex- 
periences 205, 229 

Earth, its Invisible Parts. ... 18 

Encausse's, Dr., Theory 7 

Errors in Communication, 

Causes of 35 

"Evil Spirits " Cured 130 

Fact, Provision for Every. ... 24 

Finds his Father 193 

Flammarion's, Camille, De- 
nial „ 238 

" Fly in the Ointment " 152 

Fraud- finding Instead of 

Truth-finding 34 

Fraud Rendered Extremely 

Difficult 110 

Frauds, Ancient 30 

French, Mrs., Conditions 
Agreed upon for my Inves- 
tigation of 94 

239 



240 



INDEX 



French, Mrs. Emily S 8G 

French, Mrs., Experiment 
with, Pronounced Danger- 
ous to Her 131 

French, Mrs., Investigation 
of, Urged 93 

French, Mrs., Natural in Con- 
versation During Sittings. 134 

French, Mrs., Received no 
Money Compensation 135 

French's, Mrs., A Severe 
Test of Endurance 116 

French's, Mrs., Hands Held. . 118 

French's, Mrs., Physical 
Weakness 109, 126, 128, 147 

French's, Mrs., Severe Test of 
Vocal Powers 120 

French's, Mrs., Voice and 
that of a " Spirit " Seem to 
Resemble Each Other 145 

Gaule, Mrs. Margaret, Curi- 
ously Correct Information 

from 170 

Ghostly Reporter 189 

Ghosts, Afraid of 23 

Ghosts of the Living 179, 185 

Gladstone's Testimony in Fa- 
vor of Psychic Investiga- 
tion 15 

Hallucination, Hypothesis of 
Collective 121 

Hill, A. A., A New York Edi- 
tor Puzzled by Independ- 
ent Writing 187 

Hindrances to Acceptance of 
Spirit Identity 202 

Hodgson Pronounced a Great 
Psychic Detective by Sir 
William Crookes 50 

Hodgson's Communication 
Reported Verbatim 58 

Hodgson's Communications 
at Times Trivial 52 

Hodgson's Estimate of 



" Widow's Mite and Other 
Psychic Phenomena " 1 

Hodgson's " Ghost/' Plans to 
Identify Himself 51 

Hodgson, Supposed Commu- 
nications from 47 

Hodgson Urges the Impor- 
tance of Prayer 60 

Hossack, Dr., a Control 108 

Hubbell's, Walter, Experi- 
ence at one of Rev. Mr. 
Wiggin's Meetings 81 

Hudson's Theory of the Sub- 
jective Mind Tested 187 

Hypnosis 19 

Hyslop's Method of Identify- 
ing his Spirit Father 191 

Hyslop's Proof of Personal 
Identity 233 

Hyslop's Testimony Concern- 
ing an Independent-Voice 
Experiment 158 

Hyslop, Tests by 190 

Hyslop's Institution for Psy- 
chic Investigation 16 

Hyslop's Qualifications as an 
Investigator 48 

Identity Hypothesis — the 
Chief est Problem 21 

Imagination, What is 148 

Independent Voice — An Ex- 
Governor's Experience. ... 155 

Independent -Voice Experi- 
ments by David Abbott — 
A Careful Series 158 

Independent Voice — Sounds 
May be Heard from the 
Medium's Throat when 
Lips are Tightly Closed'. . . 153 

Independent Voice Through 
the " Widow's Mite " Me- 
dium 154 

Independent Voice — West- 
Virginia Case 158 

Independent Voices, A Vari- 
ety of 106 



INDEX 



241 



independent Voice — Posssi- 
ble Explanatory Hypoth- 
eses 129, 132 

Independent Voices Through 

Trumpet 153 

Indian, " The Inevitable "... 103 
Intelligence in the Forces In- 
dicated 199 

Investigation, Systematic. .. . 16 
Investigators, Do Some, Hin- 
der "Spirits" 137 

James's, Professor (of Har- 
vard), Thought 142, 207 

Jesuit Father's, A Belief 7 

" Laws Here and There " the 
Same 105 

Letters in Sitter's Pocket An- 
swered by Mrs. Pepper. ... 171 

Lodge's, Sir Oliver, Strong 
Statement 47 

Lombroso's, Professor, State- 
ment 6 

Lombroso's Conversion to 
Spiritualism as Told by 
Himself 234 

Many Persons Having Psy- 
ehic Experiences Fear 

Publicity 6 

Materialistic Phase of Spiri- 
tualism 12 

Maxwell's, Dr., Opinion of 

Mediums 7 

McCullough's, John, " Ghost " 81 

Mediums, Why Few 122 

Mediumship Compared by a 
" Spirit " to Telephoning. . 140 

Megaphone Theory Ill, 117 

Momentary Partings of the 

Veil 222 

Moore's, A. W., Testimony in 
Behalf of Mrs. French 87 

Newspaper Fake and its 
Curious Correction , . 66 



Patience Needed in Investi- 
gation 39 

Peebles', Dr., Testimony . 205, 206 
Pepper, Mrs., Gives a Re- 
markably Correct Infor- 
mation 1 72 

Pepper's, Mrs., Hodgson Com- 
munication 68 

" Picking Nature's Locks ". . 9 
Piper's, Mrs., Communica- 
tions Stenographically Re- 
ported 56 

Piper, Mrs., Confidence in. . . 51 
Piper's, Mrs., Trance Proven 

to be Genuine 49 

Prayer or Spirits — Which?. . . 195 
Predisposition Should be 
Avoided by an Investiga- 
tor 127 

Problems to be Solved 18 

Proofs, Unusual, Required . . 2 
Proven Things and Things 

not Proven 199 

Psychic Experiences do not 

Come to All 6 

Psychic Investigation Worth 

While 17 

Psychic Phenomena in Bible 

Times :. 32 

Psychic Phenomena Natural 10 
Psychic Problem 15 

Red Jacket, a " Control " 103 

Red Jacket on the Wrongs of 
the Indian 147 

Red Jacket Reasons Against 
Certain Desired Tests 148 

Red Jacket Remonstrates — 
" Is this Fair? " — " We 
don't lie " 136 

Red Jacket's Speech Often 
Picturesque 126 

Red Jacket's Speech on Life 
in the " Spirit " World.. . . 104 

Red Jacket's Talk on Me- 
diumship 128 

Richet on New Truths 49 



242 



INDEX 



Richet's Brave Stand 25 

Rochester, A Supplemental 
Sitting with Mrs. French 

at 149 

Ruskin's Acceptance of Spirit 
Hypothesis 166 

Safe Opened by a Medium — 

Spirit or Prayer? 194 

Science " do move " 29 

Science, Mistakes of 21 

Scientists, Extraordinary Ex- 
periences Narrated by 29 

Scientists Inconsistent 26 

Scientists Increasingly Inter- 
ested 27 

Scoffing at Psychic Phenom- 
ena Unwise 8 

Stance-room in which Mrs. 
French's " Voices " were 

Tested 99,100 

Secondary Personality 18 

Skepticism Interferes 139 

Skepticism Reasonable 144 

Sound, Locating, in Darkness 

Difficult 107 

Spirit Hypothesis the Easier 

Explanation 40 

Spirit Hypothesis, Proof of. . 187 
Spirit Talks, Moral Qual- 
ity of 127 

Spirit " Wires get Crossed ". 172 
" Spirits " Make a Supreme 

Effort to Convince 141 

" Spirits," Method of Com- 
municating ' with Each 

Other 143 

" Spirits " Tell about their 
Occupation in the Spirit- 
world 142 

Spiritualism Minus Identity. 194 
Spiritualism not as yet Scien- 
tifically Demonstrated. .. . 40 

Spiritualist Defined 201 

Spontaneous Generation 114 

Stead's, William T. , Strange 
Experience 20 



Strange Spirit Hypothesis in 

Explanation 124 

Suggestion, Power of 37 

Superstitiously Superstitious 58 
Sympathetic Attitude Impor- 
tant 3 

Talking by Medium and 
" Spirit " Seemingly Sim- 
ultaneous 112 

Telepathy 20 

Telepathy, A Case that, Can 
Scarcely Explain 173 

Telepathy — a Wonderfully 

Successful Series of Tests. . 168 

Telepathy, an Insufficient i 
Hypothesis 192 

Test of Spirit Identification — 
a Curious Fact 69-70 

Thought Transference — 
Bishop of London's Expe- 
rience 1 67 

Thoughts, Suggestive 

42-46, 210-219 

Trance, Danger of 30 

Trivial Communications 
Often Helpful as Proof 53 

Truth-seeking Safe 11-26 

" Typical Irishman," A Spirit 
of a 125 

Veeder, Dr., Seems to Prove 
Mechanical Power in 

Thought 177 

Ventriloquism, Testing for. . . 115 
Vision Only to Those who 

Have the Right Viewpoint . 221 
Vocal Organs " Extempo- 
rized " 138 

Voice, A Laughing 119 

Voice, A Laughing, Rouses 
the Risibility of the Me- 
dium 140 

Voices, Independent 85 

Voices, Testing Independent. 99 

Water-Test at Rochester 



INDEX 



243 



Under Favorable Condi- 
tions Succeeds 150 

Water-test, " Not to-night " 

145, 146, 149 

Weather Conditions Affect 
Phenomena 123 

Wiggin's, Rev. Mr., Commu- 



nication from " Dr. Hodg- 
son's Spirit " 73 

Wiggin, Rev. Mr., and " Dr. 
Hodgson's " Explanation 
of Mistake 76 

Wilcox, Ella Wheeler, Tells 
of Psychic Experience 196 



The Boston Times: " A most remarkable, most important, most 
thoughtful, and most interesting work. ' ' 

The Recorder, Cleveland, O. : "There has never been before so 
fair and painstaking a book put forth on this subject." 



The Widow's Mite 

AND OTHER PSYCHIC PHENOMENA 
By ISAAC K. FUNK, D.D., LL.D. 

Editor-in-Chief of the Standard Dictionary, Author o/" The Next Step 
in Evolution ," etc. 

Large 8vo, 538 Pages. Price, $2.00. 

THIS book brings psychic investigations and the 
best thought concerning them down to date. 
"It will prove a classic on this subject." It 
presents hundreds of experiences along psychic lines, 
and reasons most cautiously concerning them. It gives 
fairly all sides. The author says : " I say neither 'No' 
nor ' Yes ' to telepathy, the subjective mind theory, 
Spiritualism, etc., for I don't know. I simply give the 
facts I and others have seen, and ask ' What is it ? ' " 
The answer of nearly forty of the world's best known 
psychologists are here given with these marvelous ex- 
periences of a quarter of a century's careful investiga- 
tions of psychic phenomena. 

The person who has this onebook has the best that can be 
said for and the best that can be said against Spiritualism. 

It brings the whole subject down to date — all fairly and 
scientifically stated, without preconception on either side. 



FUNK & WAGNALLS COMPANY, Publishers 

44-60 East 23d Street, NEW YORK 
133-/34 Salisbury Square, LONDON 



[continued] 

Review of Reviews, New York : " It is a very sensible, cautious, 
level-headed piece of work throughout. ' ' 

The Congregationalist, Boston : " 'The Widow's Mite and Other 
Psychic Phenomena ' is an interesting study, and the sobriety of tone 
will make it helpful for the investigation and the estimate of the 
phenomena with which it deals." 



The Widow's Mite 

AND OTHER PSYCHIC PHENOMENA 
By ISAAC K. FUNK, D.D., LL.D. 

Editor-in-Chief of the Standard Dictionary, Author of '■'•the Next Step 
in Evolution ," etc. 

Large 8vo, 538 Pages. Price, $2.00 

Christian Endeavor World, Boston, Mass.: "Dr. Funk has just 
covered the whole ground and covered it with remarkable thorough- 
ness and apparent fairness. 

Buffalo Evening News : " Dr. Funk has made the most thorough 
attack upon the difficulties of the problem of psychic phenomena 
ever presented to a thinking public." 

The American, New York : " The greatest work on the history of 
Spiritualism ever published." 

Sunday Telegram, Providence, R. I. : "The story of the book has 
created a furore in the circles of thinking people everywhere, bring- 
ing out a world-wide discussion." 

The Herald, Boston: "A great many people are reading Dr. 
Funk's book." 

Catholic News, New York : " The question here presented should 
be laboriously and honestly studied. . . . This book is a solid con- 
tribution to the inquiry. We are confronted with problems of which 
we can not foretell the solution, and which ought to make us hum- 
ble in the presence of man's mighty soul and mysterious destiny." 

Pall Mall Gazette, London : " A notable book." 



FUNK cjf WAGNALLS COMPANY, Publishers 

44-60 East 23d Street, NEW YORK 
133-134 Salisbury Square, LONDON 



[continued] 

The Item, New Orleans : " The greatest psychological book which 
has appeared in years. ' ' 

The Light, London, England: "To follow the author is to feel 
oneself under the leadership and guidance of a level-headed, earnest 
man eager for the truth. . . . This book is one that compels at- 
tention, and is a model of painstaking investigation." 



The Widow's Mite 



AND OTHER PSYCHIC PHENOMENA 

By ISAAC K. FUNK, D.D., LL.D. 

Editor-in-Chief of the Standard Dictionary, Author of '■'■'The Next Step 
in Evolution ," etc. 

Large 8vo, 538 Pages. Price, $2.00 

Courier -Journal, Louisville : ' ' The book is a sane inquiry into the 
so-called marvels of the spirit world." 

Chicago Tribune: " Deserves a respectful hearing from all thought- 
ful persons." 

Philadelphia Press: "A book of marvels." 

Leiviston Journal, Maine : " One of the most remarkable books of 
the times by one of the ripest scholars and most profound thinkers 
of the day. This book is wonderful." 

Progressive Thinker, Chicago : "This book will have a world-wide 
circulation." 

Philip S. Moxom, D.D.: "This is the biggest Widow's Mite I 
ever saw. , . The facts are set before the public clearly and sanely. ' ' 

Elbert Hubbard, of The Philistine : " This is a great book ... it 
surely makes men think." 

" Sit down before a fact as a little child, be prepared to give up 
every preconceived notion, follow humbly wherever and to whatever 
abysses nature leads, or you shall learn nothing." — Thomas Huxley. 



FUNK & WAGNALLS COMPANY, Publishers 

44-60 East 23d Street, NEW YORK 
1 3 3 - 1 3 4 Salisbury Square, LONDON 



[continued] 

The Herald, Glasgow, Scotland : " Dr, Funk's supporting argu- 
ments are frequently ingenious, as when he says the fact of the 
entrance of so exalted a being into the flesh realm, as was Christ 
being accompanied by a numbing of his consciousness so that He 
did not fully realize His nature and mission until a late part of His 
earthly life — this enabling us to understand, the author suggests, 
that to open visible and audible communication between the two 
worlds must be exceedingly difficult." 



The Widow's Mite 

AND OTHER PSYCHIC PHENOMENA 
By ISAAC K. FUNK, D.D., LL.D. 

Edttor-in-Chief of the Standard Dictionary, Author of "The Next Step 
in Evolution ," etc. 

Large 8vo, 538 Pages. Price, $2.00 

WILLIAM JAMES, Professor of Psychology, Harvard 
University: " 'The great field for new discoveries,' said 
a scientific friend to me the other day, ' is always the un- 
classified residuum. ' Round about the accredited and 
orderly facts of every science there ever floats a sort of 
dust-cloud of exceptional observations, of occurrences 
minute and irregular and seldom met with, which it always 
proves more easy to ignore than to attend to. . . . Only 
the born geniuses let themselves be worried and fascinated 
by these outstanding exceptions, and get no peace till they 
are brought within the fold. Your Galileos, Galvanis, 
Fresnels, Purkinjes, and Darwins are always getting con- 
founded and troubled with insignificant things. Any one 
will renovate his science who will steadily look after the 
irregular phenomena. And when the science is renewed 
its new formulas often have more of the voice of the ex- 
ceptions in them than of what were supposed to be the 
rules. No part of the unclassified residuum has been 
treated usually with a more contemptuous scientific disre- 
gard than the mass of phenomena generally called'mystical. ' ' 



FUNK & WAGNALLS COMPANY, Publishers 

44-60 East 23d Street, NEW YORK 
I 3 3 - / 3 4 Salisbury Square, LONDON 



The Widow's Mite 

AND OTHER PSYCHIC PHENOMENA 

CONTENTS 



PAGE 

INTRODUCTORY— A Plea for Pstchic Research. 3 

The Psychic Riddle ; a Great Interrogation Point (3) — 
Spiritualism a " Suspect " (4)— Truth the Only Safe Thing ; 
the Universe Fireproof (4) — A Gain to Prove Scientifically 
there are " Evil Spirits " (5) — Inviolability of a Soul with 
Pure Intent (5) — A network of Psychic Nerves (6) — Huxley 
a Little Child Before a Fact; "I Don't Know "(6)— The 
Musician on "Wagner's Level alone Knows Wagner; Appeal 
to Within (7)— The Next a Complex World (8)— Where 
lies the Solution of the Psychic Problem? (8) — Gladstone's 
Strong Testimony to Psychic Research (9) — Rudiment- 
ary Faculties (10) — A New Sphinx (11) — Spiritualism Still 
Unexplained (12) — "Don't Throw Away the Baby with 
the Water from the Bath " (12) — Judgment of Alfred 
Russel Wallace and Frederic Myers (13) — Spiritualism a 
Great, Blundering Attempt to Utilize a New Force (13) — 
Opinions of Prof. William James and of The Society for 
Psychical Research (14) — Fraud? Yes, but what More? (15) 
— Denial by Scientists Not Conclusive (16) — Increasing 
Distance from Bible Times Makes Faith More and More 
Difficult (17) — Frederic Myers' Remarkable Prediction 
about Scientists' Future Belief in Christ's Resurrection 
(18). 

PART I.— Hindering Dispositions and Opinions. 19 

1. — Ways in Which Some Spiritualists Predispose 
Investigators Unfavorably— Hindering Dispo- 
sitions and Opinions. 21 
Too Credulous (21)— Spirit Wires Crossed (22)— Heart- 
less Frauds (22)— Luther R. Marsh (23)— Too Ready to 
Believe in the Supernatural : Nothing Supernatural but 
God (25)— "Fool's World" (26)— Subconscious Faculties 
Often Ignored (27)— Unexplained Apparitions (28) — Flip- 
pant "Spirit" Talk (28)— Sittings for Fun Dangerous 
(29)— "Spirit" Teachings Not Infallible (31)— "Prediges- 
ted Thought " (32)— Too Quick to Denounce Skeptics (33) 
—Was This Colonel Robert G. Ingersoll ? (33)— Require- 
ments of Extraordinary Evidence Not Unreasonable (35) 
—Investigation Should be Made Easy (36)— Common Sense 
Suggestions to Mediums (36). 



CONTENTS— Continued 

PAGE 

2.— Ways in Which Some Non-Spiritualists Predis- 
pose Themselves Unfavorably — Hindering Dis- 
positions and Opinions. 38 

Endangering Free Agency by "Foreign" Interference 
(38) — Individuality Inviolate (39) — Was Christ a Material- 
ized Spirit? (40)— A Conflict of " Spirits " (41)—" Subpoena 
Gabriel " (42)—" Thomas Pain's " Bad Memory (44)— A 
Very Human " Spirit " : " You Won't Mind If My Face is 
Cold?" (46)— Character a Growth on Both Sides of the 
Deatb Line (47)— Spirit Communion a Complicated Trans- 
action (49)— "The Work of Conjurers" (50)— " Spirit " 
Communications Contradictory (54) — A Babel of Voices 
(55) — A "Spirit's" Explanation of these Contradictions 
(56)— " Mediumship Hurtful to the Medium" (57)— 
"Spirit's" Advice to Safeguard Mediums (59)— "The 
Work of Evil Spirits " (60)— A Converted Medium'sWarn- 
ing (63)— "I am the Evil One" (64)— "Gone to Consult 
the "Witch of Endor" (66)— Bible Teachings on Spirit 
Communing (67) — Goodness the Best Touchstone (68) — 
Outside Intelligence, Yes, but What? (70)— Like Draws 
Like (71) — Spiritualism Conclusively Disproved" (72) — 
Great Variety of Mediumistic Frauds (74) — Mediums Ex- 
changing Tests (76)— At Times Much Money Made (77)— 
Beecher's Belief, " There is Something in It " (78) — Draw 
off the Filth, but Find the Pearls (80)— Faith Predisposes 
the Eye to See (81) — Power of Auto-Suggestion (82) — 
"Harmonious Conditions Necessary" (84) — Faith is 
Growth of the Inner Nature; the Heart Sees (85) — "Leads 
to Insanity" (87) — Spirit Information often Inaccurate 
(88) — Spirit Explains (89) — Requirement of Unusual Testi- 
mony (91) — Don't Give the Ghost a Ghost of a Chance 
(91) — Ridicule; Guying Columbus and Stephenson (92) — 
A Corpse "Sassing" Back (93) — "Psychic Intelligence 
Not Beyond the Age; the Zeitgeist" (95)— A " Lady from 
Mars;" a Linguistic Curiosity (96) — Suggestive "Spirit 
Talks " (97)—" We Have Many Fools Over Here " (99). 

3.— A Letter from Scientists— A Study. 101 

Professor William James's Experience with Mrs. Piper (101) 
— A Very Sensitive Spirit (103) — Odd Reason for Failure 
of a Seance (104) — Thought Waves and Wireless Teleg- 
raphy (106) — Contradiction to the Senses Not Positive 
Proof of Error (107) — God the only Supernatural Power 
(109) — Scientist Wallace : " Spiritualism Requires no Fur- 
ther Proof " (110)— Beecher's Dual Experience (110)— How 
the Bible Made a "Fool" of Newton (112)— Scientists Re- 
fuse to Believe the Testimony of Their Senses (113)— Sir 



CONTENTS — Continued 

PAGE 

David Brewster's Curious Self-Contradiction (114) — Back- 
ward Swing from Scientific Materialism (118). 

4.— Special " Spirit-Talks " to Clergymen. 120 

A Criticism of the Churches (120) — Skepticism Dominant 
(121) — "Unbelief in Spirit Communication Provincial, Not 
Christianity" (123)— " Revelation Did Not End with Pat- 
mos" (127)— "Gilden, Not a Golden Age" (128)— "Why 
Not Two Worlds in the Same Space and Time at Work ? " 
(130)— A Test that Spiritualism Must Stand (131)— Exalted 
Talk, Whence Comes It? (133)— "God's Restoring Love 
Never Ceases Toward a Soul " (135) — "Divine Justice and 
Love Manifested in Christ" (136) — "Supreme Goodness is 
Supreme Helpfulness" (138)— A "Spirit's" Appeal to Seek 
Inspiration Direct (139) — "Christ a Materialized Spirit" 
(142) — Joseph Parker and Commander Booth Claimed to 
Communicate with Their Spirit Wives (144) — A "Spirit" 
Explains Why Mediums are Necessary (147) — God the Soul 
of the Universe (149) — Some "Spirits" Seem Profoundly 
Religious (153). 

PART II.— The Finding op " The Widow's Mite," and 

Other Similar Phenomena. 155 

1. — Detailed History of the Incident. 157 

The Medium and Her Family (158) — The Beecher Inquiry 
(159) — "In a Large Iron Safe, in a Drawer" (160) — Sure 
Coin was Returned (161) — Found as Indicated (162) — So 
Far and No Farther (163) — Report from the United States 
Mint (164)— Strong Affidavits (165)— Important Points (168) 
— Possible Explanation ; Fraud, Coincidence, Subjective 
Faculties, Spirit Communication (169) — If Spirits, Why So 
Trivial a Thing i (173)— Cross- Examination (175)— Ques- 
tions to Psychologists ; Answers from Many (176) —Prof. 
William James's Opinion (178). 

2,— Was This Beecher's Face ? 179 

A Spirit's Explanation (182)— Is This Beecherian Wit? 

(184). 

3.— Similar Psychic Phenomena. 185 

The Finding of a Lost Receipt by Swedenborg (185) — Itn- 
manuel Kant's Testimony (186) — Various Hypotheses Ex- 
amined (189)— The Finding of a Lost Will (193)— The Find- 
ing of a Promissory Note (194) — Rev. Dr. Savage Finds the 
Papers of His Dead Son (197)— Finding of a Watch (198)— 
Professor James Tells of the Finding of the Bank- book of 
His Mother-in-Law (198). 



CONTENTS— Continued 

PAGE 

4. — The " Talks " of Spirits at the " Mite " Circle : 198 
(1) " The Law of Nature " (199) ; (2) Reincarnation (204). 

5.— Other Phemomena at the " Mite " Circle. 210 

Was This My Arab Guide ? (211) — Correct and Incorrect 
Information (212)— Was This Clairvoyance ? (213). 

PART III.— Typical Psychic Phenomena. 215 

1.— Telepathy— Clairvoyance. 217 

The Remarkable Reading of a Series of Sealed Letters 
(217)— Named the One I Thought the Author, but was Not 
(218) — An Extraordinary and Interesting Mixture (220) — 
Clearly Clairvoyant, but What Mind Does the Reading ? 
(221)— Was This George Hepworth ? (222)— Coincidence in 
This Case Unthinkable (224)— "Only a Cook": Joseph 
Cook (227) — My Niece's Remarkable Series of Successes 
(228) — A Suicide's Persistent Assertion (230) — Whereabouts 
of a Leaf from Our Family Bible (232) — A Mediumistic 
Trick (235) — Personal Experiences with Margaret Fox 
Kane (237) — A Strangely Mischievous Intelligence : " Not 
so Smart as You Think You Are " (240) — Professor James's 
Experiments with Mrs. Piper (241) — Inexplicable Phenom- 
ena ; James Convinced that Mrs. Piper Has Supernor- 
mal Powers (243) — Frederic Myers's Experiences at His 
Own Home (246)— Convinced of Mrs. Piper's Honesty (249) 
— Rev. Dr. Minot J. Savage Believes in Mrs. Piper (251) — 
Dr. Savage's Daughter's Experience (253) — The Doctor Has 
Exact Spirit Reports of Absent Friends (254) — Sir William 
Crookes Proves Ability to See Without Eyes (256)— Closed 
Books Read (258) — Burning of a House Described by a 
Spirit Through a Friend (259) — R-emarkable Verification 
of the Earth History of Two Spirits (262-66)— An Ama- 
zing Premonition (267) — Oliver Wendell Holmes Experi- 
ences a Singular Coincidence (270) — Alfred Russel Wallace 
Gives a Series of Clairvoyant Experiences (272) — "The 
Rector Magnificus " of the University of Leipsic Corrects 
an Injustice to Professor Zollner (276) — Zollner Gives the 
Reading of the Date of a Coin in a Sealed Box (276) — 
Thought-Reading Will Not Explain These Wonders (278) 
— Zollner Doubly Surprized (280) — Podmore Reasons 
Loosely (2S1) — The Views of Scientists Revolutionized 
About Telepathy in Twenty Years (283)— Sir Oliver 
Lodge's Report to the Society for Psychical Research on 
Thought Transference (284) — Series of Extraordinary 
Results (291). 



CONTENTS— Continued 

PAGE 

2.— Clairaudience. 309 

Socrates's Spirit Guide (310) — " Six Bells — Janette Lost " 
(311) — Two Persons in Brooklyn Hear at the Same Time 
the Voice of a Brother in Texas (311) — Wife Hears Words 
of Her Wounded Husband 150 Miles Distant (314)— A Doc- 
tor Hears Distant Call for Help (315) — Mother and Sister 
Hear Drowning Boy's Cry, Thousands of Miles Away (316). 

3.— Display of Psychic Force Independent of Mus- 
cular Action. 318 

Guffaw That Greeted Sir William Crookes's Psychic Ex- 
periments (319) — Crooke's Statement of His Purpose (321) 
— He Secures Amazing Results (325) — His Formal Report 
Of Four Years' Inquiry in " Phenomena Called Spiritual" 
(328) — Various Classes of Extraordinary Phenomena 
Which He Witnessed (330) — Crookes Sees " Phantom Forms 
and Faces " (338)— He Sees a Bell Come Through a Closed 
Door (341)— He Sees a Man Resting in the Air (343)— The 
Scientist, Lord Lindsay, Reports a Marvel (346) — Profes- 
sor Zollner's Experiments at Leipsic (349) — A Display of 
Force Equalling that of Two Horses (350) — Many Scien- 
tists Unfair to Zollner (357)— Kjiots in Endless Bands (359) 
— A Table Disappears and Reappears (363) — Alfred Rus- 
sel Wallace's Psychic Experiments in His Own Home (364) 
—"Impossible," Yet True (367)— Dr. O. B. Frothingham 
Tells of Himself and Six Other Men Lifted with a Piano 
(368) — My Brother Secures Writing on a Doubly Sealed 
Slate (369) — A Remarkable Experiment through Zollner 
(371)— A Careful Test (376)— Slate-writing Often Fraudu- 
lent; Thomson Jay Hudson Has Strange Success (377) — 
Hudson's Inconclusive Reasoning (378). 

4.— Apparitions. 380 

Are There Ghosts? (380) — Have Some Living Persons Pow- 
er to Visit at a Distance from Their Bodies? (381) — An 
Astounding Fact of Distinct Visitation Analyzed by 
Premier Balfour's Sister (383) — Curious Success at Self- 
Projection (387) — Do the Dead Reappear ? (391) — An Experi- 
ence in My Father's Family (391) — Lord Brougham's Vision 
of a Dead Friend-(392)— Many Cases Told by The Society 
for Psychical Research (395) — Alfred Russell Wallace's 
Reasoning from Effect of Ghosts on Animals (398). 

5.— Secondary Personalities— Obsessions. 402 

Dr. Weir Mitchell's Striking Story (403)— The Case of 
Mollie Fancher (407)— The Celebrated " Watseka Wonder " 
(408) — Dr. Richard Hodgson, Treasurer, Boston, S. P. R., 
Thinks it a Case of " Spirits " (408) — Crookes Sees Material- 
izations: 



CONTENTS— Continued 

PAGE 

His Astounding Series of Letters (413) — Crookes's Experi- 
ments with Materializations in His Own Locked Room 
(416)— He is Fully Convinced That There is No Fraud (422) 
— A Business Friend Reports to Me Test Investigations (424) 
— My Brother's Careful Experiments to Verify Materiali- 
zations (424) — My Own Experience in My Own Chosen 
Room (425) — Professor Zollner Sees Prints of Spirit Hands 
and Feet on Sooted Paper, etc., under Severe Test Condi- 
tions (429) — Frederic Myers's Explanation of Genuine 
Materializations (435). 

6. —Spirit Identity— The Crucial Test of Spiritu- 
alism. 442 

A Spirit Claiming to be My Mother Tries to Identify Her- 
self (442) — Rev. Dr. Savage Gives a Forceful Case of 
Identification (443) — Dr. Hudson's Explanation (446) — A 
Good Case by Rev. W. Stainton-Moses (446) — Dr. Savage 
Tells of Relief of the Poor by Spirits (446) — George Pelham 
Case of S. P. R. (449). 

7.— Spirit Photography. 451 

Alfred Russel Wallaces's Photographic Experiences (454) 
— A Business Friend Makes Series of Remarkable Tests 
(454) — Dr. W. J. Pierce's Investigations (457) — Series of 
Pictures Without Camera (458) — Photographs Between 
Two Plates (462)— Rev. Dr. J. T. Wills, San Francisco, 
Makes His Own Spirit Photo (463)— Dr. Pierce Makes Pic- 
tures Alone in Unopened Box (474) — Dr. H. A. Reid of 
S. P. R. Investigates Spirit Photos (478). 

Addenda— Spirit Identity. 484 

Attempted Identification of Spirits by Handwriting (484) 
— Sir Oliver Lodge Thinks Identification of Frederick 
Myers Probable (485) — Spirit Autograph of Leading 
Clergyman Thought Genuine by New York Bank Experts 
(485) — Professor Hyslop Obtains Proofs of Spirit Identity 
(486)— Three-fold Request to the Public (488)— A Prayer— 
Who is Its Author ? (490). 

APPENDIX. 491 

1. — Comments by Psychologists and Other Scholars 

on the Finding of " The Widow's Mite." 493 

2.— Sir William Crookes's Provisional Explanation 

of Telepathy. 418 

3.— How to Personally Test Spiritualism; Advice 

by Rev. Wm. Stainton-Moses, M.A. (Oxon.) 520 

4.— Bibliography— (Partial). 523 



Edwin Markham, author of "The Man with the Hoe," etc.: 
" 'The Next Step in Evolution' is a great little book — suggestive 
and inspiring. It has a clarity, brevity, and poetry seldom found 
in books dealing with the deeper problems of life and thought. 
The book is an arsenal of epigrams that sing home like bullets. It 
ought to become a little religious classic. I feel very close to this 
author in his vision of the historic march." 



The Next Step in 
Evolution 

By ISAAC K. FUNK, D.D., LL.D. 

Editor-in-Chief of " The Standard Dictionary,'''' Author of '•'•The Widow'' s 
Mite and Other Psychic Phenomena^' etc. 

THE author believes that "Christ came the first 
time into men's vision by coming on the plane of 
their senses; He comes the second time into men's 
vision by lifting them up to His plane of spiritual compre- 
hension. It means a new step in the evolution of man. " 

Count Leo Tolstoy, Russia: "The idea of joining in ' The Next 
Step in Evolution ' the scientific truth of evolution with the relig- 
ious one of the Second Advent, is rich in application. The reading 
of this book has afforded me great pleasure. ' ' 

Florence Morse Kingsley, author of " Stephen," etc.: "It is truly 
illumined with the light which streams from above. It is attuned 
to The Voice which still cries aloud in the world's wilderness." 

Hon. John Hay, Secretary of State : " Have read ' The Next Step 
in Evolution ' with much interest. ' ' 

Bolton Hall, the gifted son of the late John Hall, D.D. : " Con- 
tains chapters which, apart from their beauty of diction, will give 
the same uplift and inspiration that so many have gotten from the 
' Greatest Thing in the World. ' ' ' 



FUNK cjf WAGNALLS COMPANY, Publishers 

44-60 East 23d Street, NEW YORK 
13 3-134 Salisbury Square, LONDON 



[continued] 

"A GREAT BOOK" 

Philip S. Moxom, D.D., Springfield, Mass.: "A great book. 
Its deep spirituality, its breadth of view, its scientific temper and 
method, all commend it to me with unusual force. 1 shall read 
passages of the book to my class (a Biblical seminar) next Sunday. 
I shall speak of the book to my friends as one which they ought to 
know." 



The Next Step in 
Evolution 

THE PRESENT STEP. EVOLUTION— A STUDT 
By ISAAC K. FUNK, D.D., LL.D. 

Editor-in- Chiej of the Standard Dictionary, Author of^'The Widow's 
Mite and Other Psychic Phenomena ," etc. 

i6mo, Cloth. 50 Cents, Net; by Mail, 55 Cents 

Senator George F. Hoar : " A thoughtful and inspiring book. " 

Late Hon. Abram S. Hewitt : " This is the most satisfactory attempt 
at the reconciliation or science and religion that I have ever read." 

The Outlook, New York : Appeal is made equally to the reason and 
imagination ... is full of quotable passages. This book is a type of 
that new devotional literature which is the product of a scientific age. " 
Milwaukee Sentinel: " It is really a magnificent argument aiming 
toward the reconciliation of science and religion." 

The Philadelphia Item : ' ' This little book deals astoundingly with 
evolution, contradicting many established theories, but offering rea- 
sonable ones in their stead .... They show deep thought and 
careful probing into the inner meanings of things .... It is bound 
to create a stir in the theological world. ' ' 

Cyrus Northrup, LL.D., President University of Minnesota : "I 
have rarely enjoyed a book more than I have this, because the ideas 
are so fresh and up to date, and so briefly stated that a man does not 
spend one-half a century to get a teaspoonful of new knowledge." 

FUNK cif WAGNALLS COMPANY, Publishers 

44-60 East 23d Street, NEW YORK 
133-134 Salisbury Square, LONDON 



FEB 25 1907 



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